Saturday, 12 February 2011

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is the 'second coming' of the internet, it is what it was originally intended for - to be used socially and it allows people to interact with others and put their own opinions out there. Facebook, myspace and Youtube are some of the biggest social networking sites in the world, and it is possible for anyone with access to internet to join these sites. 
The advantages of Web 2.0 is that everyone has a chance to voice their thoughts and information can be quickly distributed around the world. Sites such as Digg enable readers to either 'dig' something if they like it, or 'bury' something if they do not which gives the owner of the site more of an idea what the public likes. Many sites have been bought up by powerful companies to make more money, such as Youtube has been bought by Google now.

However the disadvantages are that anybody can post things on the internet and make up rumours, on sites like Wikipedia things can be altered by anyone, they have moderators but sometimes things slip through. There is also a huge struggle with copyright, because any one can upload things such as music and films, people can upload them for free and do as they want for them. But since Youtube got bought up by Google moderators have buckled down and are taking more control by getting rid of many copies of songs. 

Sunday, 6 February 2011

Explain, using specific examples, how the expansion of digital media has been an improvement for audiences.

Digital media has been a huge improvement for audiences over the last decade by the way in which people watch things and even where! Before you could only watch films and shows on TV or at the cinema, how you can watch pretty much anything on a laptop or even a games console now, and a plus of this is that it's more portable and you can watch it anywhere there is an internet connection. Smart phones, such as iPhones, Blackberrys and Androids  are also a huge technological advance as you can watch films etc on these also.

Since the early 2000s videos have been wiped out and DVD's took their place, they provide a much better and clearer image and sound, then to progress from these blu-ray discs have been released which take the experience to a whole new level. Watching films at home is now just as good as going to the cinema to see something. As well as films, there is a new way of viewing things on the TV with services such as freeview, Sky and Virgin Media. Sky and Virgin enable you to pause live TV, record things so you can watch it later and even record a whole series so you never have to miss an episode.

Now because more people can watch films there have been a lot more genres and sub-genres created to please the audience, a lot of viewers now are watching and enjoying cult films more than the big blockbusters of Hollywood. 'Paranormal Activity' was a massive hit world wide and it took very little money to make it. Whereas high budget films with well known actors such as Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie in'Frank' was a big flop and got many bad reviews.

Saturday, 29 January 2011

Narrative Theories



Propp, Todoror, Bathes and Levi- Strauss all have different theories about narratives and they are:

Levi- Strauss - Binary Opposites

That each genre of film and television all has an opposite, for a contrast to set the story; without this there would not be much of a story. 
Examples:
  • Wilderness - Civilization
  • Space - Earth
  • Good - Evil
  • Male - Female
  • Hero - Villain
Barthes - Action & Enigma Codes

Barthes said that there are two ways to keep suspense in a film, the action and the enigma codes.

Action: Events on the screen which leave the audience thinking about what will happen next, they do not know what is following thus creating suspense. 
Enigma: Something which makes the audience question what is happening/going to happen.

Todorov - Narrative Structure

Todorov says there is a structure in five parts which is how all films are set out;
1.     Starts with an equilibrium (everything is normal)
2.     A disruption takes place
3.     The disruption is attempted to be solved, but fails.
4.     The disruption gets solved.
5.     The equilibrium is back to normal, but because of the previous events it has been changed.


Propp - Folk Tales & Character Types

Propp said that there were eight types of character which apply to a narrative:


1.      The villain/antagonist - Bad character
2.     The hero/protagonist  - Someone who saves the day. Does not always have to fit conventions such as male and brave.
3.      The donor - Character that provides hero with useful infomation ect.
4.      The helper - Aids the hero throughout
5.      The princess - The reward at the end, object of villains scheme. Not always a female.
6.     The father figure  - Provides support. Not always male.
7.      The dispatcher - Makes the hero start their quest.
8.      The false hero - Appears good but is actually an undercover bad person.

Friday, 28 January 2011

Game Show

For my game show it is a mixture of an assault courses and general knowledge questions, will be called Bamboozled and to win it you must get the fastest time in the course and the most amount of questions correct.
Production: This will be filmed in a studio for the quiz side of it, then in some country where health and safety is not so strict, e.g Argentina. It will be slightly like the Krypton Factor, but more entertaining and for a wider audience.

This could be converged by playing it online, making a video-game of it and playing it on such consoles as; wii, wii fit, xbox kinect, playstation move. Then you could play it online with others and compete, or play with others in your home.

Distribution & Marketing: This is will be distributed both online and on television to apply to a wider audience and so people who do not have TV (e.g students) can watch it too. Adverts will be shown on popular webistes such as You-Tube, Facebook and Hotmail. 


Technologies: The main technology that will be used for this are internet and television, as pretty much everybody in the UK at least owns one, or both. This way it could be spread around faster and easy, links could be given to people and they could play along at home.

Sunday, 9 January 2011

The Male Gaze

In 1975 a feminist named Laura Mulvey published an essay entitled  “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”  - in it she states that it looks at women as being mere objects and nothing else. This is because a majority of things are aimed at heterosexual men and so to incite them to a product they use women, because sex sells. This however was in the 70s and since then things have changed slightly and now it can be used both ways, using the men to attract women to a product.  This was originally just based on films but is now used throughout other medias such as adverts, fine art and television. The woman in the advertistment becomes what is being sold rather than just premoting it, men look at it and like what they see, then women look at it and think if they use that product they too will look like that and think that the image they see is what a man wants, so becomes this normally false image of a women.


Here is a comic strip with some dinosaurs to clear things up.