Task 1: Is the DVD dead? (58.1.1)

Is the DVD dead?

What are the conventions of DVD's?
A Conventions is something that is accepted and expected of a genre, for example when you buy a DVD you would expect there to be a start menu, and on that start menu you would expect the basic option – ‘Play’ ‘Special Features’ and ‘Scene Selection’. Having these options will be a convention of a DVD menu.

- Regional Codes. This was designed for Film Distributors to protect content, release dates, and change price’s according to a certain region.
A regional code is a code that is given to every country, and those of a same code can watch the same disks, but those of a different regional code will not be recognised in the different countries due to the codes.

- Copyright Protection; copyright is put in place for anything whether it be Films, adverts, books, anything that belongs to someone and they don’t want other people to use it without there permission or paying them to use it.

- Parent Controls- Now a days parents have a lot more control over what there children see. Now there is even a special DVD player specifically designed to stop anything you don’t want your child to see, just by changing a few settings on the DVD player, this apparently works with ANY DVD rented from stores.

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What are the functions on a DVD?

Menu is something that you will see on ALL professional DVD’s, these give you the chance to play your movie, select a specific scene, see special features, change the language and many more. This makes the DVD home experience interactive for the audience and saves a lot of time. (Overlay menu and layered menu).

Moving image; This is something like a film or a trailer – something that moves constantly and smoothly. This will be used at most cinemas, this also shows the audience what is happening more clearly.

- Animations; This is the first thing that you see when a DVD menu comes up – The animation can be anything from the animation of the ‘play’ and other buttons available for you to press, or what’s going on in the background. Animations are important as it makes things more interesting for the audience, it will also tell a lot about the film before it’s watched. The animations shown can tell you parts of the plot in the film and the genre of the film.

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Do you think DVD's have a future?

I believe in some ways DVD's have a future even though we live in a world full of new technology and gadgets. Nowadays, people watch movies in cinema or download and watch them online, leaving the DVD industry an in-continuous gadget. However, some people like to buy Blu-ray DVD's for good quality movies to watch at home. 

Having said that, Blu-ray players aren't flying off the shelves. Trepidation and mystery surrounding the up-and-coming technology can be partly to blame for this. A lot of consumers who are expected to buy into Blu-ray are the same people who had to be convinced to switch from VHS to DVD no more than 15 years ago, or maybe as little as five years ago, if they were late to jump on the bandwagon. And when technology does the job it is meant to, people will question why it needs updating again. 

I believe that one day DVD's will reach at a dead end and everyone will see it as a nostalgic memory and an old gadget.

Task 4: Be Able to develop responses to media products

Mean girls is a 2004 American teen comedy film directed by Mark Waters. The movie is based in a High School drama setting, re-creating how schools in America is like for young teenage girls. The plot begins with a girl named Cady Heron who was home-schooled in Africa and have returned to the United States after a 12-year research trip in Africa. While settling in her new school in Evanston, Illinois she encounters new characters (Janis and Damian) and the schools most exclusive cliques, the plastics, who was led by ‘’The queen bee’’ Regina George. The plastics take interest in Cady and invited her to have lunch with them everyday. Making Cady one of the plastics, Janis see’s this opportunity to plan a revenge against Regina, using Cady as a spy to gather information about the plastics and report back to Janis.

The demographic audiences for this film are girls aged from 16-19-years old.  Within the movie, all four girls are seen wearing stereotypically girly clothing, focusing on pastel and bright colors such as blue, pink, purple etc. The clothing is seen featuring jeweled studs when infused with stereotypical girly clothing, indicating that these characters are representing an extremely girly and feminine group of girls in society. The location of each character’s home indicates their personality and their social class; for example, Regina George is seen to be upper class because of the unnecessary belongings and the environment that she lives in. This reflects her popularity and how she is seen from the world as an ‘’innocent’’ and ‘’girly’’ character due to her clothing, immediately contrasted by the manipulative nature of her personality. Telling the audience that looks can be deceiving.

Gender itself within the film is a major theme of representation. The leading characters within the film are all female immediately giving the female sex a dominant and powerful presence within the film. In addition to this, Cady, Regina and Gretchen are all portrayed at some point strong. However, when these characters are seen as strong, it is when they are plotting against each other, presenting another teenage girl all ‘’stab’’ each others back. The character of Cady Heron is seemingly the only female who is seen with the most power by the end of the film due to her ‘’honest’’ actions.

The narrative of ‘Mean girls’ itself clearly reflects the films institution, the simple and clear plot/characters make it easy for audiences to watch and it ultimately requires little to no thinking on the audiences part. The use of Cady’s voice over at certain parts of the film also promote an actor/audience connections as it brings audiences to a more closer and personal approach to the character making her seem even more relatable. Furthermore, it reinforces the idea that being honest and good will get you wherever and whatever you want making this an ultimately ‘wholesome’ and ’mild’ representation of the teenage experience.

As the four lead characters within the film are teenagers, one can immediately expect that audiences would be those close to their age and those who can relate/identify with the characters and the experiences they are encountering, this is then furthered by the primary location of the film being a high school, immediately attracting those who are or have been in high school. In addition to this, due to the 'tongue n cheek' nature of the film along with its sexual content, younger children are uliminated from the audience as the content would be deemed as inappropriate. As the films focus is on four female character, the audience for the film would most likely be mainly female as they could relate and identify with the characters the most. The cast of the film itself also acts at indicating the intended audience, fans of lindsay lohan will most likely have seen the film, in addition to this through having Tina Fey apart of the cast older audiences are somewhat drawn into the film allowing the film itself to appeal to teenagers and adults.

Video Art Installation

Video Art Installation


Audience Response

Unit 14: Working Freelance in the creative media sector

What is a freelancer?

A freelancer or freelance worker is a person who pursues a profession without a long-term commitment to any one employer.

As an employee, you enter into a contract with an employer. The deal is that you show up every day and do a certain type of work. In return, you get a regular paycheck and benefits. Your contract is exclusive, meaning you work for that one employer and (generally) no other.

As a freelancer, you also enter into contracts, but with many “employers.” The deal is that you will do a certain type of work, but you can generally do the work at any location you choose, and the work is usually on a project-by-project basis. In return, you get paid for the work you do according to a fee that you and the business mutually agree to for each project. There are usually no benefits. Your contract is non-exclusive, meaning you may work for as many other businesses as you like.

Advantages:

• More freedom and flexibility
• More highly paid for hours worked
• Choice of work
• status in organisation

Disadvantages:

• At the whim of employers or clients
• may work or unpaid hours to get work done
• insecurity of income

Task 3: Understand how media producers create products for specific audiences

A 12-year-old boy edging into adolescence without a father, his dad having lost his life the year before in the Falkland Islands War. A gang of skinheads -- tough guys in their teens and early twenties who shave their heads, wear Ben Sherman polo shirts, and Dr. Martens boots, and listen to ska music -- walk the streets in Shaun's neighborhood, and one day they start picking on him. Shaun, however, shows he can give as good as he gets, and gang leader Woody (Joe Gilgun) takes a liking to the boy. Woody takes Shaun under his wing, and he starts hanging out with the skins, getting advice on dressing right from Woody's girlfriend,(Vicky McClure), and learning about Jamaican music from West Indian skinhead Milky (Andrew Shim). However, the gang begins to change when Combo (Stephen Graham) is released from prison and returns to the neighborhood; like many skinheads, Combo has been recruited by the National Front, an openly racist right-wing political party, and soon the gang begins to fracture, with Combo taking one faction toward violence and petty crime against blacks, Indians, and Pakistanis, while Woody and his friends follow a more benign path.

The film pays close attention to the British working classes and this comes across in the poster. This is mainly achieved through the location. Two blocks of council flats are visible over the fence and these carry connotations of a low standard of living and a real shortage of money both of which are associated with the working classes. Also the title helps to create a gritty atmosphere. Instead of having clean colours it has been given a worn effect that contributes to the overall feel of the poster.

Another major element of the film is nationalism, which is represented on the poster by the use of colour on the title. The red, white and blue creates a strong association with this theme due to the strong link to the Union Jack and Great Britain.

'' A target audience can usually be noticed by the age of the characters used for filming, however Meadows has used a various amount of different ages. Also the decision of Meadows giving different character types and personalities for instance Shaun, Combo and Woody's contrast. A lot of people could say that this film is targeted to people who grew up with this era surrounding them, which is possible as Shane Meadows has included iconic values from this era such as the music the people enjoyed listening too, games people enjoyed playing with etc. Those who grew up with this era surrounding them would find they could relate to the issues which where dealt with in this time such as violence, skin heads, racism, and would also have a background knowledge on Margret Thatcher and feel like they are apart of these issues. I also think that is is a warning for those who never grew up in this era, so this would mean it is also targeted at young adults (teenagers), this is be because it is wanted to be seen as a message or warning, as the title of the film is This Is England and not This Was England, it is Meadows way of warning the teenagers that this is still happening now. Another reason why teenagers can relate to this is because they can also link to issues with are dealt with, for example growing up without a fatherly figure can relate to Shaun's character, and how he also got involved with the wrong crowd of people. ''