Wednesday 23 November 2016

Roland Barthes - Media theorist

Roland Barthes - Media theorist

Roland Barthes' 5 codes:

  • The Hermeneutic Code - Any element of the story that is not fully explained and hence becomes a mystery to the reader.
  • The Proairetic Code - This builds tension referring to any other action or event that indicates something else is going to happen and which hence gets the reader guessing as to what will happen next.
  • The Semantic Code - Connotation within the story that gives additional meaning over the basic denotative meaning of the word.
  • The Symbolic Code - This is similar to The Semantic Code but acts at a wider level organising semantic meanings in to broader and deeper sets of meaning.
  • The Cultural Code - Anything that is founded on some kind of canonical works that cannot be challenged and is assumed to be a foundation for truth for example, science or religion.
The cultural code:

This code refers to facts known to be true which typically involve science or religion. Roland Barthes theory of cultural code looks at audience's wider cultural knowledge, morals and ides. This cannot be challenged as it is assumed to be foundation on truth.

Tessa Perkins' 5 assumptions - Hotel Babylon

Tessa Perkins' 5 assumptions - Hotel Babylon

Stereotypes are not always negative

There are many examples of stereotypes which aren't negative ones. A stereotype is a widely held but fixed image or idea of a particular type of person or thing. Tessa Perkins believes in this theory that not all stereotypes are negative. An example that he used was that the French were good cooks. In relation to Hotel Babylon, Perkins' theory is correct to an extent because it has a lot of counter stereotypes of the immigrant workers making them good people within the TV Drama as well as stereotypes. This shows that the stereotypes aren't always correct

They are not always about minority groups or the less powerful

In Hotel Babylon, the stereotypes are not always regarding the black characters which are seen as the minority and the less powerful compared to other groups of people who work at the Hotel. The white characters which hold the most power prove this theory because they are also stereotyped as rich. Also, in Hotel Babylon, the black staff members have to hide when the officers come to inspect the hotel for immigrant workers. Whereas the white workers didn't need to hide.

They can be held about ones own group

In Hotel Babylon there are any particular stereotypes which relate to teenagers who are stereotypically viewed as thugs. Due to this stereotype of teenagers, it proves that the theory can not be applied to Hotel Babylon.

They are not rigid or unchanging

Within Hotel Babylon, the stereotypes which are presented are very challenging to remove or change due to the fact that black people have the stereotypical view of immigrants and criminals. Although black people hold this stereotype, over the past years black people have had a less judgmental view and are seen more equally compared to when they were harshly stereotyped. This proves that stereotypes can change.

They are not always false

In Hotel Babylon, black people had the stereotypical view of all black people are immigrants making it harder for them to find work. Although they had this stereotype, it was true as all the black workers in the hotel were all immigrants.



Tuesday 8 November 2016

Ex machina review

Ex machina review

Ex machina is a sci-fi film directed by Alax Garland. The storyline of this film is about a man, Caleb Smith (Domnhall Gleeson), who entered for a competition and won a week trip to do a Turing test for man who created the robot, Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac), Caleb Smith didn’t know what he was going to do when he was there but it all goes wrong once the 2 men start having trust issues.
Towards the end of the film, we see that all of the creations Nathan had made are all women. This had made it sexist in my opinion as the film wouldn’t have been the same if the robots were male. Because Nathan is based in a research lab in the middle of nowhere, he feels lonely and needs the company of the women robots.
The film, ex machina, is a great film for the budget that they had of $15,000,000. The film had low amount of staff working on the film who weren't "A list stars", which saves them money instead of having to pay bigger wages to the “big named”. With the production company offering roles within the play to the lower levelled actors, they were able to spend their budget on more important aspects of the film such as the visual effects and the location of the film. The directors and writers of the film (Alex Garland) had thought of a good idea for a film which suited their target market as the film had made around double the amount of money which was invested in to it. Alex Garland hadn’t made many films before but this film was good and very unique with the idea of robots becoming more powerful than humans eventually. The producers of the film, ex machina, (Andrew MacDonald and Allon Reich) were involved in a great film which did very well considering the amount of money which was put in to the film. This film had great visual effects and kept the audience attached to the screen, to see what happens at the end with the robot, Ava, and Caleb.
Although the film was good, it wasn’t very moral as Nathan had made a robot which can think and feel like a human with consciousness but is keeping her in a confined area not allowing her to escape. If it was a human behind the bulletproof room then it would be breaking that person’s rights but because it is a robot, it is seen as fine. Also, Nathan had made all female robots that can’t escape and have to do what Nathan says when he wants and what he wants. This could be seen as a type of slavery which is also morally wrong making Nathan a bad person but because he is clever and is making future technology, he is allowed to get away with it.
The ending of the film, we all presumed that Ava was going to walk off with Caleb and be free together and live a happy life but we didn’t expect Ava to lock Caleb in a room where he needed a card to get out and there was no other way of him getting out so he was trapped. How Ava was with Caleb made us all suggest that she actually liked him but Nathan was right, Ava pretended to like Caleb to use him as a way of escape.
Overall, I thought this film was a good film with plenty of suspense moments. My most enjoyable bit was the action towards the end with Nathan and Ava (Nathan’s creation).




Monday 7 November 2016

Ex machina research

Ex machina research

    Producer: Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich
    Director: Alex Garland
    Distributor: Universal Pictures
    Cast: Alicia Vikander, Domhnall Gleeson, Oscar Isaac, Corey Johnson 
    Budget: $15 million
    Locations: Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
    Technology: The film format was printed on D-cinema
    Number of screens - opening weekend: 1,289
    Number of screens - peak number: 2,004
    Box office figures: $36.9 million

1. The issues raised by media ownership in contemporary media practice

The first issue, which is raised by media ownership, is whether the company is within a position to invest large amounts of money into the production and marketing of a film and whether they are a well-known company. If the company is a British institution then it is likely that they aren't a very successful company in comparison to American. This is because it is largely comprised of small independent producers. They are also known to be under-capitalized. This means you would not be able to fund for things like special effect, stars, the creating of the film etc. This means they won’t be able to publish the film, as people will be more interested in films with all the better stars, good special effects and story line, which is what the bigger company’s like Disney have as an advantage. Another issue raised is about “85%/90%” of the films shown in the UK are US films. This is because US have a bigger budget on making the film, which gives them an advantage as they have much more freedom when spending money on the film. Therefore US production companies certainly have the largest market share. . For Ex Machina, this seemed like an issue for them as the producers were both English companies who aren't so well known, which meant that it was hard for the film to gain publicity as it cannot be accomplished as easily as a film produced by Disney would. At first it seemed that the film would just be the same as all low budget films, as it was only released on 4 screens and therefore, they needed to do something different in order to gain the publicity they needed. The way ex machina managed to achieve such good publicity was because they managed to get universal studios to distribute their film which meant that they had access to many cinemas and could show their film on various screens. However, this wasn't the only reason they managed to make ex machine successful... Because it was a low budget film, they had to think differently about how they went about spending money and were much more careful about it. it was said that they wouldn't have done what they did with Ava if it was a low budget film. The creators of Ava were also told not to look at any robots during the production of her, this meant that Ava was extremely different and brought something new to the industry. Therefore, because the producers spent their money wisely, made the film individual and had the help of universal studios, this meant they were able to receive a total revenue of around $37 million.

2. The importance of cross media convergence and synergy in production, distribution and marketing

Synergy is an important aspect because its two media companies collaborating for the purpose of generating profit. This is important in production because when two media conglomerates come together and they are very well known it will make the audience want to watch the film more because it’s done by two media conglomerates and will therefore be successful. However, because Ex machina was produced by two smaller conglomerates, it seemed a different picture. Its clear, that without the help of one another they would certainly not have been successful, as a film like ex machine needs thousands of ideas thrown at it as they were trying to be something different. And therefore by having two companies work on the film, it allowed them to proceed and come up with many ideas. Another reason it was important is because they were so low on their budget and therefore because they had the help of each other they were able to maximise the overall outcome of Ava, set the film in a stunning landscape and create amazing visual effects. Cross media convergence is where a media product is promoted across other media platforms. Ex Machina used cross media convergence a lot when marketing, in a way where it was on lots of tv advert intervals, and cropped up a lot on the side of websites online. However, this is what is expected for a film company to do now. Therefore, Ex Machina stepped it up a level and decided to market their film in yet another way by the use of Tinder... The way they did this was by creating lots of “Robot” accounts named Ava. Once in a conversation with another individual, the “Robot” would explain the storyline in a very sneaky way, and eventually explain who they are and what the film is about. This gained lots of publicity over social media and helped the film generate lots of fans.

3.  The technologies that have been introduced in recent years at the levels of production, distribution and marketing

This is used for the audiences to interact with the films through using digital technology to put extracts on YouTube and then to overlay new sound tracks on to them. Film studios can make films using CGI, green screens and other special effects which have only recently been able to complete due to the technology we now have compared to a few years ago. The methods of filming and editing have changed recently with the introduction of film cameras and digital cameras, editing software, laptops and digital projectors. Distributors use the latest software for designing high-concept film posters and trailers, they can do this using phone apps, online marketing and can also use Facebook. Although film companies spend so much on the productions on films, they have issues with file sharing and piracy. These are issues which are growing within our society as it is easy to get away with it and also easy to download and watch. A way in which film companies are trying to avoid piracy and file sharing is through releasing the films soon after theatrical release by selling them on video on demand, premium TV channels and downloads. The US and UK cinemas chains aren’t happy about this issue, especially as the cinema companies have invested a lot of money in to projectors and digital equipment. With people file sharing and piracy, the cinema companies aren’t able to make their money either to make their money back on the equipment which was invested in to the equipment and also, unfortunately, goes out of date fairly quickly.

4. The significance of proliferation in hardware and content for institutions and audiences

The significance of proliferation of hardware in the film industry means there are more equipment for producers to use, for example in the filming aspect, there are thousands of cameras to use and many ways to film, like using a film camera or a digital one. However, as the new technologies are cheaper to buy and are meant to be better quality it means film companies can spend more money on better editing software and marketing, etc. In the film Ex machina the filming was done on a digital camera, instead of film, the producer may have done this because it was cheaper and they were on a smaller budget compared to some of the block buster movies. But that didn't affect the outcome for the audience as it still won awards for Best visual effects. The proliferation of hardware in media has meant that audiences in the film industry have been able to create their own home movies on a much smaller budget, by using digital cameras and editing software like adobe. Then the movie can be uploaded to the internet for the audiences. 

5. The importance of technological convergence for institutions and audiences

Technological convergence is the joining of two or more media companies or technologies to form a new object. Within ex machina, the technological convergence would be that the robots are made to be human-like with consciousness but are also able to do things better than humans making them, eventually, the next evolution stronger and better than humans. The technological convergence for institutions and audiences has allowed to improve the quality and complexity of films using new techniques. It also makes it easier to make and access such as DVD’s, cinema and downloadable versions. Recently, films aren’t being made how they used to be made with big cameras and film reels and are now using digital versions of recording which is considerably cheaper because a traditional camera would cost around £50,000 compared to the advanced digital ones which cost around £10,000 saving money. With them being able to save money in this section from just changing recording methods, the production companies can then use the money efficiently, spending it on different areas to make the film better such as special effects and CGI (which have improved dramatically over time) for, in this case, ex machina. Despite the fact that ex machina was a low-budget film, it won a Grammy award for the special effects which were used during the film which suggests that the production company spent less money on other necessities such as the actors’ abilities and not needing A-list stars and other extras such as advertisements and marketing but specifically focused on making sure that the special effects were really good, making the film known for their special effects.

6. The issues raised in the targeting of national and local audiences (specifically British) by international or global institutions

Ex machina was a film which had unexpected success earning academy awards, golden globes and BAFTA awards. Ex machina won an Oscar for the best achievement in visual effects and was also nominated for an Oscar in the best writing and original screenplay. There are many different issues which are raised by production companies aiming films at either local audiences or global audiences. With ex machina being a low budget film, they weren’t able to focus on the advertising and marketing department because they focused on the visual effects making the film interesting with all the special effects using special software. Because Ex machina was only released in the United Kingdom on January 21st 2015, this proves how because they had a low budget, they weren’t able to make the film for other countries or advertising it in other countries as it would cost the production company more for marketing and advertising. Although, if the production company for ex machina was to have a bigger budget, focusing it more on the advertising and marketing and releasing it in other countries, the production company would have more profit than what thy received. Also, with it only being a local based film, it may only appeal to the target audiences of the United Kingdom compared to target audiences globally. This film was good at targeting the desired audiences due to the amount of profit the production company had made. The production company had an approximate budget of $15,000,000 and made approximately $30,000,000 doubling their money.


7. The ways in which the candidates own experiences of media consumption illustrate wider patterns and trends of audience behaviour


My own experience of how the media has changed is very dramatic as i have grown up in the 21st century, meaning i have been able to watch movies on Video tapes, where the screen used to flicker and now I’m able to watch movies in HD, but that has now been outdated by blue ray which almost an immaculate picture. But much before this, back in the 1970s when DVD first came out, people could only see a movie at the cinema on and they made a special trip out of it as it was such a big thing. As times have changed, we no longer have to do that, we can sit at home and watch almost any more by streaming it on our mobile phones of other devices. Due to this film has to attract its viewers again by issuing deals for example orange Wednesdays and student Thursdays. Now media companies are buying rights to show films on their television channels for example Netflix and sky movies. All of this takes away people visiting cinemas and can place them in the same cinema situations at home.