The Male Gaze

Laura Mulvey instigated The Male Gaze which is how an audience views the people being presented. In 1975 Laura created the term "male gaze" to ensure film audiences view the characters from the perspective of a heterosexual male.

Things in media such as videos and magazine covers, use figures to catch the gaze and sell the product to people. An audience can be easily distracted by the gesture of what's being presented for an advert for a product rather than paying full attention to what the product actually sells.

The theory is still relevant today because all media companies encourage this way of advertising through using famous music artists and various other types of celebrities or models to publicise products by using their aesthetically pleasing looks to encourage sales of the product.

Theory used In this picture because of the use of the full body image and shows off her physique which appeals to men because it is 'selling sex' and makes it more appealing for people that would like that and would make them want to buy the magazine. She is also posing in a sexual position that shows off her body and makes certain parts of her body, such as the breasts and bum stand out more to make It more sexual and seduces the reader.

 



In this scene it makes the male gaze because it is of two women that are attractive and it shows off a 'fantasy' because of the kiss and the use of them sitting together and sort of teasing each other.  

Ethnic Stereotyping Overview

Overview of Ethnicity Stereotyping

Positives

·         You’ll know where to go out to a meal with a black person. Nandos or KFC.

·         California girls are good looking.

·         New Jersey people are tanned.

·         Brown eyed people are most fun.

·         Black people have big penises.

Negatives

·         All Muslims are seen in a bad way as terrorists because of events like 9/11 and the London Underground bombings in 2005.

·         All Chinese people eat dogs.

·         All British people have bad teeth, drink tea and eat crumpets.

·         Italians have big noses.

·         All Indians smell.

·         Americans are fat.

·         Russians are all alcoholics.

Kings Speech - Case Study

What Makes a film British?
A British film has many different aspects to it and all of them have to come together to create a British film, but, it doesn't have to use all of them. These aspects include, a setting in the UK or about people from Britain abroad, a predominantly British cast, a story line with an aspect of British life (past, present or future) and a British author/director. Recent Films include 'The Kings Speech' which is about the story of King George VI of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, his impromptu ascension to the throne and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch become worthy of it. This is a good example of a British film because it is based in Britain, it is about British history, it has a predominantly British cast and a British director.

Exhibition Issues - Box Office in the UK
The UK's mainstream media doesn't usually pay much attention to cinema box office, but a likely exception is the inspiring performance of The King's Speech, a plucky-underdog success story that's as headline-friendly as it gets. Even distributor Momentum Pictures' wildest expectations were exceeded with a £3.52m opening weekend, including modest previews of £227,000. A rousing true tale about an English monarch triumphing over adversity that stars Colin Firth. Clearly there are elements appealing to the older, upscale British heartland. But when you consider the opening grosses of Slumdog Millionaire (£1.83m), Calendar Girls (£1.88m), Atonement (£1.63m) and Pride and Prejudice (£2.53m), it's clear The King's Speech has taken a leap forward, even allowing for inflation.

Exhibition Issues and reviews: The films reception
From critical film reviewers on various different websites and newspapers there were various different opinions and most of them were positive. It was nominated for 14 BAFTA's and 11 Oscars including best picture, best director, best supporting actor and actress, best screen play, best editing, plumiest consonants, loveliest vowels, and best medicinal use of swearing.

Critical Review of The King's Speech on YouTube


Production Issues
"The King's Speech, the story of how King George VI overcame his stammer, was just a letterbox delivery away from never getting made"

The films production team posted the script to the film through Geoffrey Rush's letter box in order to hopefully gain his role as Lionel Logue. After unsuccessfully gaining his involvement after sending numerous emails they thought this was the way about it. The films producer Gareth Unwin stated that the film needed some key casted roles to be a success and that is why they went to so much trouble to attract Rush's attention towards this film.

"This flies against every fibre of me knowing how the business works. I ended up with a four-page email from his manager tearing me a new one. But it finished off with Geoffrey saying he liked it and that we should talk. We wouldn't have got to talk to Geoffrey at that stage otherwise. Joan was audacious in her thinking and it did pay off."

 Gareth Unwin from Bedlam Productions spent 5 years prior to the start of production developing this story with David Seidler. “ I knew we had an upper level that we had to aim for,” says Unwin of his need to find co-producers for the ambitious project.

The team were keen to make a period drama that didn't feel mainstream. “It’s uplifting without being cheesy,” says Canning. “The Weinsteins gave us one really great note early on, which is, it’s all about the friendship. We honed it to focus on that.”

Tom Minter (US Writer) sent Joan Lane the play script. As a fellow friend who was also a writer of the play’s author Seidler, Tom recommended Joan as a well-connected London-based producer of theatre. Having previously sent the play to another London based colleague, who had not been able to attract interest in it, Seidler wasn't sure what to do following this - so he followed Tom’s advice.

Lane gave a copy of the script to Simon Egan from Bedlam Productions to try and gain his interest in production. Thankfully he saw potential and took an option of screenplay adaption. Following that, Lane organised a rehearsed reading in which would have director Tom Hooper's parents in the audience. This was a tactical move of Lane as she introduced The Hooper's to David Seidler the Plays author, so he could exchange contacts with Tom's father to gain contact with Tom himself.

Distribution And Marketing Issues
When marketing the film The British Board Of Film classification planned to label the film was a 15+ because of the explicit language in a particular scene. However after many attempts of protest by director Tom Hooper the film was reclassified as a 12A.

Dredd Essay (Improved)

Dredd is a UK film released in 2012 and was directed by Pete Travis that had a budget of $45 million and only made $36.5 million at box office. It was distributed by Entertainment Films and Lionsgate, the studios were DNA Films, IM Global and Reliance Entertainment and it was filmed in the UK and South Africa. The 2012 film was based on an old American film released in 1995, starring Sylvester Stallone, called 'Judge Dredd', which was based on an older graphic novel released in 1977 called 'Judge Dredd' also and was written by John Wagner. The graphic novel was UK released but the film was a US film. The US film adaptation  'Judge Dredd failed because no one in America knew what it was and the only reason why people went to watch it was because Sylvester Stallone was in it who was widely known across the whole of the US. Dredd is a UK attempt to revive the film after the failure it had In America and the producers were hoping to have a more positive feed back because it was a UK production in the first place.

Dredd failed in UK box office and did not bring in much money, success, fame or popularity. The budget for the film was $45 million and in box office it only made $36.5 million so it made a loss of $8.5 million. The producers of Dredd tried to make the film a UK blockbuster but it didn't work for many reasons. First off, the film was a British film with a British director and producers. But, the film was based in America which made the film not appealing to a British audience because its not their country and its not the way they live and know. Because its not where they live it discourages people to watch the film because its not the same 'feel' as it would be if it was set in their own country. Also, because the director was British he couldn't concept a good idea of what America was like and wasn't able to capture the country the same way as an American would. As well as that, the cast was not predominantly British it was mainly foreign and also there were no A-List stars so no one knew any of the actors and the audience didn't appeal to them because they were not British. Because there are not A-List stars or any British actors it doesn't make anyone want to watch the film because there is no one or nothing to see because no one will know the names of the actors or seen them on anything else before (like another film or T.V series/show). At the same time as 'Dredd' was coming out America was also bringing out some big blockbusters so it had no match to the US films that were coming out so no one wanted to see it because it was no match to the US. But, the film was made to compete with the US but couldn't work because it already had a bad reputation because of the 1995 release of 'Judge Dredd' so no one in the US was going to watch it anyway.
The main character in Dredd is meant to be seen as some sort of super hero. But, the problem with that is that you never see the face of the judge so you cant really relate or get attached to the character and he never really seems like a main hero and also there are many other, larger and more well known, superhero's out there made and produced by bigger companies. For Example, there are two main big companies; DC Comics created Batman and Superman and Marvel Comics that created Spiderman and all The Avenges. So, there is no way that this film could take over any of these because they are so big and well known everyone would rather see a film by one of them instead of a minor company with a super hero that has a bad reputation or people do not know about. Also, all of these films are either PG or 12A so it can appeal to a much wider audience because the age range is increased, but, Dredd was an 18 so not many people would be able to watch it or want to watch it because super heroes appeal more to the younger generations rather than the older ones.
The use of CGI in the film is very poor. The film was mainly shot in South Africa because it was cheap and because it was cheap it meant they could spend more on the CGI. The director and producers of the film tried to make the CGI as good as they possibly could so they spent all of their money on the CGI instead of the actual film. There are parts in the film where when the character takes a drug called 'Slo-mo' which makes it seem for them that time is moving extremely slowly. To create this effect they needed Red X cameras and it cost a lot of their budget and they made the film in 3D because that's what they thought people wanted to see. because the film was so widely spread in 3D and there weren't many places you could watch the film in 2D not many people went to watch the film because they either didn't like 3D or just didn't want to watch the film in 3D and didn't want to travel so far just to watch it in 2D. There were only 29 screens, in the UK, you could watch the film in 2D in and they were only in the main cities and only in one screen in one cinema and limited screen times. This discouraged people to go and watch it because they were un able to watch the film the way the wanted, in 2D.
There was a lot of marketing for this film. Things like a UK and US trailer, posters and in august 2012, a viral advertising site "Dredd Report" was launched, satirising the Drudge Report. The site featured a video condemning the use of Slo-Mo, and links to news about the film.
Dredd was released on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital Download on 8 January 2013 in North America, and 14 January in the UK.The Blu-ray edition contains the 2D and 3D versions of the film and a digital copy. The distribution between the 2D and the 3D is that the 2D version earned $10,365,798 and the 3D version earned $6,244,477 which shows that people preferred the 2D version and that there was less point for the producers to 'waste' a lot o their money just on making the film 3D. The DVD and Blu-ray editions contain seven featurettes: "Mega-City Masters: 35 Years of Judge Dredd", "Day of Chaos: The Visual Effects of Dredd 3D", "Dredd", "Dredd's Gear", "The 3rd Dimension", "Welcome to Peachtrees", and a "Dredd Motion Comic Prequel" narrated by Urban During its 2d made $ first week on sale in the UK, Dredd was the number 1 selling DVD and Blu-ray.During the week of its release in North America, it was the number 1 selling DVD and Blu-ray with approximately 650,000 units sold, and Blu-ray units accounting for nearly 50% of that figure. It was also the best-selling digital download for that period. Sales spiked in the United Kingdom in June 2013, following a reported rumour that it could influence DNA Films' decision to pursue a sequel. By September 2013, Dredd was estimated to have earned approximately $10 million in home media sales in North America, while in the UK it marked over 270 days in online-retailer Amazon's top 100 selling home media.
'Ice Age' is a film distributed by '20th Century Fox' which is one of he 'Big Six'. This means that it had a much bigger budget of $59 million and it made $383 million at box office which is a profit of $324 million. Because of what type of film it was, an animation, it had the correct amount of money in the budget that it needed for it, unlike 'Dredd', which means that the film was able to be better quality, they were able to get A-List stars and they were able to market it much better. Because everything is better quality and there are more popular actors in the film it appeals to a much larger audience so a lot more people would go and watch it. Also, it wasn't in 3D at all s everyone will go and see it because everyone likes to watch 2D but not always 3D unlike 'Dredd' again. As well as that, it is rated as a U, not an 18, it can appeal to all ages so the target audience is much wider there fore it can earn more money.
In conclusion the film 'Dredd' was all round very poor. In my opinion I think that it failed at box office because the director, Pete, didn't in for try to concept Britain for a British audience, he tried to make 3D work but it didn't because not many people simply want to watch films in 3D and also there wasn't a big enough budget to have any A-List stars or market it enough.

In what ways have the improvements in cardware and content affected institutions and audience?

Different advances in technology in films have been able to open new doors for UK and US films for all audiences in and out of the cinema. It has helped in the making of the films (Post-Production etc.), distribution and marketing.

3D movie uses a particular filming technology, which presents two individual images simultaneously to each eye and provides a stereoscopic vision to the viewer. It has been enhanced to offer a perception of depth of image to the audience with tinted glasses, who will be tricked to have a sense of true depth and feel that the objects in the 3D movie is extending out from the screen.
The use of 3D has affected audiences in US and UK film ever since it was made. It gives the chance, for people, to feel like the film is more realistic and as if you are involved in the film. It has influenced audiences because for people who want to be more involved into a film or want it to be more realistic they will go and watch that film. Also, people may go to watch the film because they like the idea of 3D. For films, 3D effects have been able to open doors for what they can do with their films, such as, if they want something jump out at the audience they can make that happen because of the use of 3D.
But, the use of 3D does not always have a good affect on people and not everyone wants too see films in 3D. Even though 3D is a step forward in technology it is not always good because not all people want to see a film in 3D maybe because they don't like the idea of it, it can hurt peoples eyes and you have to wear glasses which people might not want to do.

Due to the rapid improvements of T.V's the cinema is becoming more and more pointless. The reason for this is because that T.V's are now being made with HD, 3D and becoming smart T.V's. Also nearly all of them take DVD's now. Because of this the cinema is struggling to keep up with them because you can he everything at the cinema in the home now, such as surround sound and 3D, and the advantage of this is that it is less effort and it is much cheaper. So, as T.V's continue to develop further and further as time goes on the cinema many never be needed.

'Dredd' is a film good example for when 3D isn't a good thing for audiences. They made the film in 3D because that's what they thought people wanted to see. because the film was so widely spread in 3D and there weren't many places you could watch the film in 2D not many people went to watch the film because they either didn't like 3D or just didn't want to watch the film in 3D and didn't want to travel so far just to watch it in 2D. There were only 29 screens, in the UK, you could watch the film in 2D in and they were only in the main cities and only in one screen in one cinema and limited screen times. This discouraged people to go and watch it because they were un able to watch the film the way the wanted, in 2D.

The advances in technologhy have made that distribution of films after they have been in the cinema has been made that more people can get their hands on and watch the film. There are many websites that you can get subscriptions on to watch many new released and old released films just by a click of a button for example 'Netflix' and 'LoveFilm'. These websites are avaliable on the computer, smart T.V's, tablets, phones and even games consoles. Because they are on so many devices it makes it easy to watch for anyone, anywhere at any time. This is good for the film companies and distributors because if more people watch it, it earns them more money and they get a larger profit from the film as it becomes more popular and it is watched more.
Its not just these websites that have the films on though. 'Sky' have on demand films and the 'Sky Movies' channels and any film shown on that earns money and on the on demand part of sky it means that people can watch certain films whenever they want to so that means more films can be shown off and promoted. Also, 'Xbox' have their own movie services where you can watch any film for a rental fee which means that many people can watch lots of different films just at a small fee just like a film website.

Blu-ray (not Blue-ray) also known as Blu-ray Disc, is the name of a new optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association, a group of the world's leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers (including Apple, Dell, Hitachi, HP, JVC, LG, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, TDK and Thomson). The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of high-definition video (HD), as well as storing large amounts of data. The format offers more than five times the storage capacity of traditional DVDs and can hold up to 25GB on a single-layer disc and 50GB on a dual-layer disc. This extra capacity combined with the use of advanced video and audio codecs will offer consumers an unprecedented HD experience.

While current optical disc technologies such as DVD, and DVD-RAM rely on a red laser to read and write data, the new format uses a blue-violet laser instead, hence the name Blu-ray. Despite the different type of lasers used, Blu-ray products can easily be made backwards compatible with CDs and DVDs through the use of a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical pickup unit. The benefit of using a blue-violet laser (405nm) is that it has a shorter wavelength than a red laser (650nm), which makes it possible to focus the laser spot with even greater precision. This allows data to be packed more tightly and stored in less space, so it's possible to fit more data on the disc even though it's the same size as a CD/DVD. This together with the change of numerical aperture to 0.85 is what enables Blu-ray Discs to hold 25GB/50GB. Recent development by Pioneer has pushed the storage capacity to 500GB on a single disc by using 20 layers.

Exam Response (Plan)

Question:
“Media production is dominated by global institutions, which sell their products and services to national audiences”.
To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Task 1

TOPIC - The BIG area of study

ASPECT - The small focus within that area

VIEWPOINT - The belief about that area

INSTRUCTION - What your answer must do.

“Media production is dominated by global institutions, which sell their products and services to national audiences”.
To what extent do you agree with this statement?

Task 2

The King's Speech

'King’s Speech was released in the US. The budget of our film was about 15 million dollars – at the very least they’ll probably spend 25 to 30 million marketing it America so they are going to spend almost double the cost of production on the cost of selling it and that is just in one country. So the sad thing about it is that there is still a kind of lock down on who gets to make films that reach everyone because even if you do effectively make your film for nothing, for a distributor they’ve still got to look at a huge amount of money to get the film out to everyone. So the revolution that I expected when the digital age came when I thought filmmaking would be very democratic hasn’t quite taken off.'

'The other thing that is extraordinary is that you can make a film and you have the right to post it on YouTube.'

'You can put it out in public and get some people seeing it and that’s an unbelievable revolution. Again, in the old days I made my films but no one saw them apart from my family them because how would anyone see them.'

British Film Industry - Taken From BBC

The British film industry should back more mainstream movies, a report is expected to recommend next week.
Ahead of a visit to Pinewood Studios on Wednesday, Prime Minister David Cameron said the film industry should support "commercially successful pictures".
His comments come before the publication of Lord Smith's review into the government's film policy on Monday.
The review was commissioned to find out how the industry could offer better support to UK film-making.
Mr Cameron praised the UK film industry but said "we should aim even higher, building on the incredible success of recent years".
He acknowledged the British film industry had made "a £4bn contribution to the UK economy and an incalculable contribution to our culture".
Lord Smith, the former Labour culture secretary, is also expected to recommend developing an export strategy to increase the profits of British films.
Speaking to the BBC, director Ken Loach said it was important to have a diverse film industry with a wide range of films to choose from.

Dredd
Budget: $45 million
Box Office Gross: $36.5 million

Distributer: Entertainment Film and Lionsgate

Running time: 95 minutes

Genre: Sci-Fi, Action

Produced by: DNA Films, IM Global and Reliance Entertainment

Actors:

Dredd - Karl Urban

Judge Cassandra Anderson - Olivia Thurlby

Kay - Wood Harris

MaMa - Lena Heady

Location it was filmed in was mainly South Africa, the rest was produced in CGI, the costumes tend to be of a science fiction genre.

This film took $6,278,491 (USA) (21 September 2012) on the opening weekend.

Star Trek: Into Darkness 

Budget: £190 million
Box Office Gross: $470 million
Distributer: Paramount Pictures (Big Six)
Running time: 133 minutes
Genre: Sci-Fi
Produced by: Bad Robot Productions, K/O Paper Productions and SkyDance Productions

Actors:
Chris Pine - Captain Kirk
Benedict Cumberbatch - Khaan
Simon Pegg - Scotty
Zoe Saldana - Uhura
Alice Eve - Dr Marcus
Zachary Quinto - Spock
Karl Urban - Doctor

 Star Trek were originally going to CGI everything in the film but they decided to build it all because they wanted it to be more realistic and they could afford it, unlike the film 'Dredd' because they didn't have the money so they had to CGI everything.  Star Trek was predominantly filmed with in warehouses, however spaceships are filmed on real life huge dustbins and edited away to look Sci-Fi like. They also used an element of CGI, however JJ Abrams (director) wanted to produce as much props as possible and edit them to make it look more life like and real.
Star Trek used IMAX camera for 30 minutes of the film
This film took $70,165,559 (USA) (17 May 2013) on the opening weekend at the cinema.

Film Company Research

Screen Yorkshire
It  has been running for over ten years, with an aim to not only provide support for Britain within the film industry, but  to make Humber and Yorkshire the most sought after destination for productions in the UK. Investments made by Screen Yorkshire are purposely made to develop talent and content in specific films they target. This is the largest organisation in the UK that invests in content (£15 million). Investments are made on market rate commercial terms with an intention to make sure investment returns are going to produce a legacy fund to support the development of content and production for TV and Film in Yorkshire. 

Screen Yorkshire Production:

• Wuthering Heights
• Kill List
• A Passionate Woman
• The Damned United
• Tyrannosaur
• Red Riding
• This is England '86

Film 4

 

Film4 Productions is a British film production company owned by Channel Four Television Corporation. The company has been responsible for backing a large number of films made in the United Kingdom. The company's first production was Walter, directed by Stephen Frears, which was released in 1982.

 

Film4 Production:

• Never Let Me Go
• Slumdog Millionaire
• Dead Mans Shoes
• The Lovely Bones
• The Inbetweeners Movie
• Dr.Easy

Warp Films

Warp Films is an independent film production company based in Sheffield & London, UK, with a further affiliated company Warp Films  Australia based in Melbourne, Australia.

 

Warp Film Production:

• This is England
• Four Lions
• Dead Mans Shoes
• Tyrannosaur
• Kill List

Studio Canal
StudioCanal is a French-based production (as StudioCanal S.A.) and distribution company that owns the third-largest film library in the world. The company is owned by the Canal+ Group.

Studio Canal Production:

• Non-Stop
• Rush
• Kill List
• In Fear