Wasp (2003)

Directed and written by: Andrea Arnold

Starring: Danny Dyer, Nathalie Press, Jodie Mitchell, Molly Griffiths, Kaitlyn Raynor and Danny Daley

Zoe is a single mother who lives with her four children in Dartford, she is poor and cant afford to buy food. One day her ex-boyfriend drives by and asks her to go on a date with him. This will be her first date in years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasp_(film)

Fishtank(2009) directed by Andrea Arnold

Directed and written by: Andrea Arnold
Starring: Katie Jarvis, Michael Fassbender and Kierston Wareing

Mia a 15 year old girl lives with her mother and younger sister in a Essex council estate. Mia is a loner and does not seem to have any close friends. In the first scen of the movie she gets into a fight with other girls on the estate. We realise early on her only way escape is through dance, where she practices alone in a deserted flat.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_Tank_(film)

Representation of women in contemporary British cinema

• Library dramas like Charlotte Gray have celebrated the roles played by women in history.

• On of the most developed area of British film culture a rising number of female directors and writers have contributed to this rise increase.

• Films such as Fanny Elvis (1999) have confronted issues such as infidelity and abortion, other films like Mad Cows (1999) have tried to confront roles which affect the female body in particular hard hitting subjects which the female audience can relate to.

• Close friendships represented in films such as 'Anita and me' are used as to overshadow other tensions and jealousies relating to age, gender, ethnic and intellectual difference.

• How to used narrative or voice to represent women rather than the body can be seen in Stella does tricks (1996) where a teenage victims story of abuse and prostitution is recounted to others.

• The Bridget Jones films is perhaps the best film to look at to compare the change in gender politics in recent years where the Bridget Jones character has become an icon for post-feminists.

• They depict the feelings of both freedom and loneliness and displays the singleton lifestyle and how this trend of single occupancy is increasing.

• There has also been alot of films made around the grief and trauma of abuse that women receive.

• The film 'Red Road' shows this passive nature of women who suffer the abuse along with the intensity of their grief.

Media language library

http://www.medialit.org/reading-room/language-media-literacy-glossary-terms

Slumdog millionaire

Factfile...

• 2008 British film directed by Danny Boyle
• Adaption of the novel Q&A
• Had a nationwide release in January 2009
• Nominated for 10 academy awards in 2009 and won 8
• Won 7 baftas, 5 critic choice awards and 5 golden globes.

Danny Boyle describes how he 'wanted to get across the sense of this huge amount of fun that are in the communities of the slums. what you pick up on is the mass of energy.'
 The film looks at India from a post colonial standpoint which means it looks at India from a British viewpoint.
This film has received mixed reactions from critics one critic said how this ' feel good movie of the year may help us feel good that we are among the lucky ones on earth, it delivers a patronizing, colonial and ultimately sham statement on social justice for those who are not' Critic India Knight shared the same view when she said the that the film is 'something that would make western audiences feel better about their own lives'. However the film didn't receive just negative feedback in an article form the telegraph one critic made reference to the it being like Usain bolts performance at the Olympics; funny, shocking, turbo-charged. It takes your breath away at the same time makes you want to holler with joy.

However even though the film has received such mixed reviews it cannot take away from the fact that it has received so many awards reflecting that director Danny Boyle must have done something right.

New wave media

Film representing 2010

PLOT: 

•  Group of friends, 1 from the middle east
• One goes off to war
• Boy returns from war with a disability e.g.missing arm/leg
• Friend comes back from war and ends up getting involved with a new violent group of friends
• Commits crime but finds it hard to be completely able to be involved
• Gets caught and ends up in prison and in the media.

ACTORS/ACTRESSES:

• Noel Clarke
• Jack O'Connell
• Shona McGarty
• Dev Patel

REFERENCES:

• Hurt locker
• Skins
• Kidulthood/Adulthood

Ideologies and discourses

Marxists approach

• Karl Marx questioned media and cultural studies questioning 'natural' but unequal order of things.
• Analysed new profit and market dominated system - capatilismm and the power of 2 classes within it. The rising industrial manufacturers or capitalists and the working class.
• Emphasis on the importance of class difference or people different relationships to the means of production.
• Capitalists relationships to their employees. The working classes who have the power to change history by one day rebelling.
• Ideology for how the capitalist class protected and preserve it economic interests.
• Society of those who work in the interest of the ruling class secure its rule or dominance. Those who own means of production.
• Base-superstructure sees how social order is met in the media. Like regional and culture life.
• The dominant class is able to make workers believe that exsisting relations of exploitation and oppresion is normal.

Michael winterbottom

Michael Winterbottom had influences from the french new wave film directors, this influenced him to create films on location and helped sharpen his style. This meant he studied many social settings. He tried to combine this social realism with different experiments, outragous photography and the expressive use of widescreen. Through this Michael Winterbottom was able to establish an international reuptation.  One example of his social realist influienced films is Welcome to Sarajevo (1998) this shows social realist based upon a true story. A recent film of his is The road to Guantanamo (2006) this shows a more political respone to the events after 9/11.
 Michael Winterbottom also explains how British cinema has become proud enough to represent the underdog as a tradition and that atleast a few people understand other peoples state rather than ideolising the celebrity glamourous lifestyle which dominates so many media forms.

"Hero with a thousand faces"

Hero with a thousand faces is a non-fiction book written 1949 by Joseph campbell, it describes the work of mythology and the use of the hero within these mythology stories.
 Since this book has been published Joseph Campbells work has been an influence to major film directors, one famous one would be by George Lucas in the stories of Star wars films. These influences also bridge over to Disney films where they have used Joseph Campbells work as an influences for Alladin, The lion king and Beauty and the beast.

"A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man."

Film pitches

The pursuit of happyness
this film sees a middle age man called Chris Gardner attempt to turn his life after losing all his money in a company which is unsuccessful, after losing his wife he and his son move in and out of motels and homeless shelters whilst Chris tries to make it big in the stockbroker market working his way through an internship. But does he succeed?

I am legend
Robert Neville is the last man left in New York after a pandemic wipes out the whole of man kind. For 3 years he tries to get hold of someone through broadcasting radio messages. But finds out he is not alone mutant victims of the plague hide in every corner watching is every move. But hes not the only survive he remembers how a woman saved him when the plague hit and desperately tries to find them. eventually she hears the radio message Robert sent out and finds him. She hopes to leave New York but scientist Robert has other ideas, finding a cure of this disease. But do they find the cure?

P.s i love you
This film sees a middle age widdow who has lost her husband to a shocking illness. Holly Kennedy is a work obbessed girl so when she loses Gerry her life falls to pieces with no support luckily for Holly, Gerry planned ahead writing her letters to help guide her through the grief and through her life. Each letter signs of at the end with p.s i love you. Holly embarks on a journey of new discovery showing how a love so strong can turn the sorrows of death into a new life. But will these letters guide her into the wrong direction?

Media literacy

What is media literacy?
 Media literacy is how texts constructs its meaning as much through its form as its content. "The medium is the message"

Digital literacy
Examples of digital literacy are things like the internet, youtube, social networking sites, games, Mp3's and all cultural developments coming through technological change relating to new ways in which we communicate, which could not have been possible before web 2.0

memes and remix
A meme is a popular term for describing the rapid uptake and spread of a particular idea. Usually presented as a written text, image, language or move.
 Remix culture is where media texts are constantly are constantly reworked and changed by consumers who instantly become producers. This can be seen on sites such as youtube where people post clips where they have imitated or cut clips from different sources together for the enjoyment for other people to watch. This is showing how people can communicate through the internet without talking but through the shared enjoyment of a particular film or programme.

Fan culture
This analyses fans as a form of cultural expression for e.g: harry potter fans creating 'mash up' and 'sweded' video material of youtube. This fan culture is not only found with films it is also relevant with TV dramas and music videos, where fans post videos of themselves imitating the actors/singers or dancers in the clips. This fan culture can even go as far as the gaming world where fans creating spoof games resembling likeliness of their favourite games.

The site itself encourages this fan culture with their slogan 'broadcast yourself'.

Meta-narratives

The word Meta has many meanings; behind,before,later stage of development, change, transformation and alternation. Are just a few in a whole list of meanings for the word meta. When matched with the word narrative can be used to describe many films.

The word meta-narrative means a super story, a story that everyone in an audience is assumed to know exists outside the story being told. A typical use of this in Britain is the use of London as a setting. This is apparent in the opening of the film 'reign of fire' directed by Rob Bowman in 2002.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOGT9odzmmk
This shows the opening of 'Reign of fire' where London is used as a meta-narrative, it is used alongside the association of pigeons with Trafalgar square which is used as a strong signifier of the dragon. The use of the underground lift also has a strong association with the London underground, this signifies non-mainstream life also helping to represent the young boy as much more lonely and vulnerable this helps to set the atmosphere for the film

The myth

Brainstorm of what myths are:

Roland Barthes --> looked at representations of myths in his text 'Mythologies' where he describes myths as showing significant meanings to our everyday lives. Showing relevant continuity between fantasy and reality.