Most texts today mix genres. How true is this to your three main texts?

This is true of District 9. Throughout we see lots of references to other films of the Science fiction genre  with reference to postmodernism and its conventions. To start, the idea of someone fighting their own race to save another is a common feature in this film. At the end of district 9 there is a big shoot out where Wikkus is in the alien machine fighting the militia and the MNU while Christopher is running to the mother ship. This idea of killing your own race to save another links to Avatar and how he also fights his own race for another. In this particular scene of District 9 the idea of a dystopian society is obvious. When looking at the Mise-en-scene we see the war torn ground, MNU vehicles and soldiers, the Militia soldiers, alien technology and corpses lying everywhere. These conventions give a clear message that this is a dystopian society, a aggressive world they live in with no clear way of peace. In addition to this, in District 9 there are some typical Si-Fi genre conventions involved in this. The alien technology and the transformation are the two obvious connotations. In the scene where wikkus is sitting at his desk, just as the transformation is starting to occur we see use of Pastiche with reference to 'The Fly'. In this scene we see Wikkus pull off his nail as his human body is starting to decay and transform. Putting the two scenes side by side we can see that it is almost equal to the scene in the human fly where he also pulls his nail of in the early stages of transformation. However the Mise-en-scene in District 9 in this scene is filmed with a much more documentary side approach. The digetic sound of the office and people talking just makes it seem like it is an ordinary work place. However everywhere we see the MNU logo, showing that this is a dystopian and dominated society with strict rules, giving a feeling of great oppression. There is also bricolage in this scene. There is a mix of documentary, horror and science fiction. The documentary side is the office and its typical conventions, the horror side is the gore aspect with he use of decay and the sifi aspect in this scene is the transformation.

That was terrible ^^^^

Induction paragraph.

I will be exploring if Hip-hop presents stereotypical views on ideas of masculinity and if so how are they shown.

Throughout i shall be looking at particular songs and music videos which represent clearly what the society is like and how they're trying to express this. In doing so i shall be looking into artists to compare associated with this album. The artists and albums which i am looking to compare and contrast are Public enemy - 'It takes a nation of millions to hold us back', a more older version of hip hop, and Dr.Dre's album -'The Chronic', still a older version of hip of hop but the views and musicality between these artists is comparable.

Gender representation in Hip-hop slide

http://genderrepinhiphop.blogspot.co.uk

"Hip Hop is one of the largest cultural movements that the world has seen. It was born in the United States through racial, class and gendered divides as a way for marginalized, primarily black and brown youth in the United States, to share their stories and experiences. In desegregated communities suffering from the effects of “white flight”, from near non-existent social services, from police who were the bad guys, from the devastation of drug addiction and dealing, in communities that suffered – hip hop grew.
The spirit of hip hop has always been one of empowerment through artistic expression. The four elements of hip hop - b-boying/b-girling, DJing, graffiti and MCing - are art forms that have enabled people to articulate the reality of their lived experiences and to share their knowledge with the world. It is the artistic embodiment of “the personal is political.” These art forms have always represented another aspect of hip hop: the notion of constant battle. Just as hip hop is about fighting both self-imposed and systemic oppression; success for hip hop artists is about competition - with oneself to be better, and among others to be the best.
Hip hop is about self-education and the encouragement of people to improve their circumstances through advancement of their knowledge and their skills." 

http://www.themissgproject.org/teachers/MissG-Curriculum-HipHopUnit.pdf

Fish tank.

Fish tank is a social realism film targeted at a Niche audience. This film was constructed to give a clear representation of the realism of this particular society, what the culture is like and what troubles the individuals face. As the film starts, before we see anything we can already hear the sound of traffic, sirens and the outdoors. To the trained ear it would be easily identifiable to recognize this as a social realism film just from this as usually in other genres to start off there is some form of music, digetic or non digetic. Shortly after this we see Mia who happens to be the main character. In many social realism films the directors use unseen actors as it helps add to the realism of the film. To add to this many of the actors in Fish tank had never acted before, so their untrained acting also has that sense of naturalness too it which you couldn't find in Hollywood films for example. In social realist films the main goal is obviously to make it as real as possible, and to portray a clear picture of that society. In Fish tank there are a series of things which help achieve that. The English accent, slang and swearing. The gritty accent and the use of foul language in Fish tank helps express the idea of poverty in that area, even what they are wearing adds to that. The raggy cheap track suits and vests which a lot of them seems to wear sends us a message of no money and little motivation to look good. Another thing which helps achieve this gritty social realist style is the use of natural lighting and hand held cameras. Being a low budget film it works perfectly in social realist films as it actually relates to how real life is. As far as natural lighting is concerned you wouldn't have hard and dark lighting effects in normal day to day life, so this natural lighting really helps portray them as real people with normal things happening, relating to use as an audience as we also live in the real world. The hand held camera on the other hand makes us feel like we are there. There is a scene where we see Mia walking quite fast and a hand held camera is following her. It just adds to the realism of the scene instead of a expensive shot where it wouldn't connect with the audience as much as a hand held shot where the screen is all shaky would. Her walk says something too. Her walk is fast and rushed, like she has somewhere to be, or even running away from something. But in reality she has nowhere to go and is just trapped in this place.

In the film there are quite a few scenes of the female gaze, contrary to the male gaze in a lot of films. We can say this female gaze makes her the sole focus even more as throughout the film the camera is either through her eyes, or on her. Seeing this female gaze we learn about her personality. Learning that  she does feel attraction towards men. The fact that the director of fish tank is female shows her views and how she wanted to turn a nice twist on what gaze is represented. Another thing to point out about Mia is that she takes after her mother. Her mum is dressed like a tart and speaks uneducated, with swearing and cursing. She is not an appropriate role model for her daughters. As a result of this Mia looked up to her and took after her. They both share a similar attitude of hate and anger. Mia's younger sister is on the verge of becoming the same too, as a result of bad parenting Mia's little sister looks up to her mum and Mia and swears just the same, even though she looks eight years old. This example is a realistic portrayal of what this society is like, how everyone takes after each other with this broken language of swearing, the cheap clothes and horrible attitudes, and how its just on a continuous cycle through generations. Relating back to the idea of Mia being somewhat trapped in this place throughout the film we also see a horse on a chain. Mia and this horse seem to connect throughout as they are both in similar situations. They are both trapped with no clear way of getting out. Mia feels sorry for the horse and when it goes she starts to cry. This is the only time in the film where we see proper emotion come from her, telling us that there is more to her behind the strong and angry front she puts on.

X factor audience.

X-factor has a mainstream audience. We see examples of why and how this audience is gathered and attracted. For example it is shown on ITV 1 at 8:00pm on saturdays and sundays. These particular times, channels and dates make the X-factor a more popular thing to watch as it is on a channel which lots of mainstream programmes are shown. 8:00 o'clock is a time which most people sit down to watch TV and are not working, therefore this will be a peak time to show a programme as lots of people will be watching TV, and on top of this the fact that it is shown at weekends means a lot of people will be at home and not at work or as busy in the evening, creating a larger mass audience. An addition to this is the way it appears to someone viewing it. The big lights, big audiences on screen and loud music are all things which are attractive to the eye and ear, so someone who hasn't even watched x-factor before will be interested as to what it is. The producers also construct it in a way where the contestants aren't all amazing singers. This creates another source of entertainment for the viewers as viewing others misfortune is humorous and will draw the audience in. This is an essential part of the x-factor because if all the producers show is good singers then it would soon become boring to the audience. A similar thing to this is Gordon Ramsay's kitchen nightmares, if he didn't shout and swear at people and just cooked and spoke nicely then the audience would get bored much easier. The big audience on screen will make those viewing at home feel a part of the show, like they are somewhat involved and to build on this the fact that the audience can vote will make them feel like they have power over the show. Furthermore when we see the contestants go through to the next round it creates enigma codes and the audience will then pick their favourites in the show which will cause social integration as people will argue over who is better, creating a wider interest to those who haven't watched it before. One other reason why it has such a mass audience is because of the cultural enjoyment and cultural/regional identity. For example it is a English programme but also for the auditions they go to various regions across england so viewers of the particular place will be attracted to see what talent comes out of their particular region. As far as age range is concerned, when talking about target audience, it ranges from around 12-60. It is on before the watershed hour so it is more likely to be viewed by younger audiences. Also the age range of the contestants is similar if not the same as the target audience so this could give the viewers personal identity if someone of the same age is singing on there.


The American death core band 'Chelsea grin' will have a niche audience. They do not play mainstream music and are not a mainstream genre. The term 'death core' is unique in itself and will attract a fairly unique audience as opposed to some mainstream chart music which will have a wide audience kind of all ages, which is not particularly unique. The niche audience of Chelsea Grin however are easily influenced by them, causing them to dress similarly and following in their footsteps creating a personal identity.

Die another day

In this particular scene there are many examples of the male gaze theory being applied and passive and active roles. The first thing we see is James Bond looking through some binoculars at the beach and his attention gets caught when he spots a female coming out of the sea. When the camera focuses on this woman it shows her walking out of the sea in slow motion, but at the same time the sea is glistening bright in the sun and the non-digetic music gets louder as the camera focuses on her. This gives some form of Goddess like representation and applies the gaze theory as Bond is actively watching her through in binoculars which also allows us to see her through a male characters eyes, creating scopophillic pleasure for the male viewers. To build on this idea, before they even speak she stands relatively close to bond  with her back turned to him as she admires the view of the ocean. This again allows us to see her body through Bonds eyes and again relating to the idea of scopophillic pleasure and we can also say that she is being passively objectified for her body and Bond is the active subject by looking at her up and down and allowing us to see this male gaze.

American Beauty.

In the clip from American Beauty we see various examples of Laura Mulvey's 'Gaze' theory applied. Initially we see a basket ball game and the camera flicks to the cheerleaders so we know that this is stereotypically American. However this on this part there are no obvious signs of the male gaze theory being applied. The first time we see the theory applied is when the cheerleaders start their dance. Referring back to the stereotypical cheerleader it is how they are are dressed which applies the male gaze theory, and when they start to dance we get a full view of what they are wearing. The short skirts, long hair and dancing around are typically male gaze material. This idea is supported when we see the character (who is playing the father role) has his attention caught by this particular blonde female. His reaction to this is clear when we see a close up of his face, it is shocked and somewhat seduced by this female and getting scopophillic pleasure from it. 

CSI.

In this text we see examples of dominant ideology and hegemonic values. One of the first things to point out is the fact that they're all American. This can come across as patriotism, creating a dominant ideology that America has the best crime scene investigation force. This can effect the viewer in a few ways. For example, if an American citizen was to watch this they would get a feeling of safety and security from believing this false mediation that the American CSI and police are as good as they appear to be, creating a hegemonic ideology that the police are always right. In addition to this how the crimes are solved in this text also leads the viewer to believe even more false assumptions. In CSI the crimes are solved from the smallest of things and the suspects are easily found and accused. This leads away from reality where it is much harder to solve crimes, and not so easily solved from a piece of hair or some fingerprints. As far as male and female representation is concerned male and females are treated as equals in this, with a similar position on power. For example in this particular text a female investigator constantly has a serious face and talks with meaning and confidence and when confronted she stands her ground with confidence. To build on this it is that same female which actually figures out who one of the dead women are, portraying intelligence and understanding. This leads away from other texts and real life in some cases where there is usually some male dominance. However in this the equality is clearly shown which can lead the viewer to think differently about their views on male and female roles and positions of power. Narrative theory can also be applied to this. Enigma codes are shown through the dead bodies and the whole crime scene. This leads the audience the feel curious about how this has happened, who did it and what will happen in the end.

A place beyond the pines.

In this trailer when see the males we always see them doing certain things. In this case we saw them robbing banks, getting involved in police chases, using guns and even government speeches. This shows that they are presented as men in positions of power who are strong and confident in themselves, and independent. Even more so we see the use of tattoos on their bodies which can be associated with violence and danger. The males facial expressions are also always serious and somewhat miserable at times which tells us about the film too and what mood it could give across to us as an audience. Females, on the other hand, are represented as very feminine with some dependance. When we see women they are always holding a baby, telling us as an audience that they have a role as a carer and can't be as independent as males. Furthermore the expressions on the females faces are commonly quite worried and innocent which could express if they are meant to be portrayed as fragile. So to compare both male and females, in this particular trailer, males have a strict dominance over females, like it evolves around them and women are just they subjects on the side who they care for but always have this dominance over them.

Sleepy hollow

Sleepy Hollow- The first thing we see in this scene is a woman cutting hair from  a young girl, place it in a fire and then perform some spell with a skull. There are three parts to this little bit which makes it unusual and gives off some good examples of techniques used. The first one is the cutting of hair. As it has done with anger there is some evident hate coming from this woman and seeing as this little girl is currently unconcious it is clear that the girl is weak and innocent, this alone creates a binary opposition of strong vs weak. The second point is the fire. Fire in horror films usually is used to represent danger, death and evil. On the other hand in romantic films for example fire can be used to represent warmth and content. In this case though the fire has a negative approach with anger, death and negativity. 

the third point is the skull. It is universally known that a skull represents death, no matter what genre or context a particular text is in. So this could only mean one thing. The fact that this woman also holds this skull up in the air tells us even more about her character. It seems like she is almost worshiping this skull or what she is trying to summon, as if it was God like. 

Skyfall narative

Skyfall- In this particular sequence we see that Propp's theory is applied. James Bond acts as the hero, Silver as the villain and the woman as a victim/princess. From the start of the scene we can already tell that silver is a villain, the way he walks and the way he talks and acts toward Bond and the others, we can sense an evil aurora. To add to that point in the scene we hear digetic music being played through a radio. This particular music happens to be french, relating to silver being french himself and giving him this regional identity, so we can also say that this particular scene evolves a lot around the villan and us as an audience know that it is building up to something. Some binary opposition is shown as well. There are examples of good vs evil, and weak vs strong....

The male gaze.