Audience Pleasures in The In Betweeners

The In Betweeners is a comedy hosted by E4 about teenagers and the awkward situations they get themselves in and which they have to face. This is aimed at real teenagers because a lot of the stuff they might have experienced in real life and they easily grow a connection with the main characters. Will, who used to go to a private school, often finds himself in situations which his friends don't mind yet are a pain to him because of his character and his morale's.

First of all, what the teenage audience might like is the slapstick humor which the comedy show uses, for example in the field trip how Simon had to get undressed because he got out of the boat and lost his girlfriend because everyone saw him naked.

Another thing that the audience might enjoy is the familiarity and however hard the friends prank and mock each other they still stay as one. A lot of past teenagers might see some references to their earlier life and enjoy reliving it. Some of the audience use this to escape the reality and go back to their early days before adulthood and live relive it again, which tells us that even some of the older generations might be enjoying the In Betweeners. For example they could remember the excitement of getting their first car and then the disappointment because it would be a bucket of bolts that they can't appear out of in front of the girls and their friends.

The crude and rude which the friends often refer to is appealing to the modern youth because not many of them use it and it is a bit unrealistic but at the same time entertaining because it's something new that normal TV comedies don't really go to. For example Wills friends sometimes call him 'suitcase wanker' because of the suitcase which he can't bear to leave and get a normal bag and because of the story of how they got together.






  

Hot Fuzz Analysis

From this extract we understand that this is an action and adventure film because of the characters we see in the film. Nic Angel is clearly a hero because we see him being cool and calm when he arrives at the ‘hive’, the village, where all the villains are living. We see him arrive on a white horse, which is very unusual in real life, and white is normally the colour of the hero and this also creates a parody on the boss battle in Westerns, where just like here the hero arrives on a horse and challenges the villain to a battle. We see that the villains are shocked to see Nic come, because only a fool would come to a place where he knows that he’s going to get brutally killed and, they think, would come out in one piece. During this time Nic looks very calm and casual, which he shows by slowly spitting out the tooth pick, which strengthens the feeling of a Western parody, and waits for the villains to make the first move because he didn’t come to kill them but he knows that they’re not going to give up easily so he’s ready for them. Nic’s future sidekick looks also very gobsmacked when he sees him, but then soon he joins him and, like in many Westerns, Nick isn’t all alone now against the hive. When the villains come back to their senses they look very angry and they want to kill Nic as fast as they can which makes them look very ugly and we feel sorry for Nic who has to face the lot of them. This is a hybrid because, even though the scene is different, it has a western feel to it, like the toothpick, however it also has some elements of modern shoot em’ all films with the modern shot guns and assault rifles.

We Nic Angel being very creative and tactical by using a group of local teenagers, who the villains couldn’t have shot, to cover the surveillance cameras, so that he could walk undetected until he wanted to be uncovered, and to help him out in the tight spots, like when he sent the teens to drag the woman with the rifle away from the window. This contrasts highly with the villain’s tactics, which is basically to stand in the open, shoot as much as they can at the target and have no tactics. Nic also shoots not to kill but to indirectly injure his attackers, like when he shot the flower basket which hit the woman on the head and where he shot a trucks tyre so that all of the heavy barrels rolled onto his attacker. This is made to increase the contrast between his and the villains plans. All they want to do is kill him whilst he wants to bring them in. Like all heroes, Nick gets a sidekick, who knocks over the vicious woman on the bicycle duel welding two pistols, which demonstrates that he’s on Nic’s side and ready to be his sidekick.

Comparitive Assignment (work in progress)

Mavis by Vivadou 1920
I chose this image because it's styled in art nouveau, which all the other images don't have. It contrasts with my other two texts because it has a lot of movement in the shot and it has a lot of cool colors; which are used to show the darkness of the night and to highlight the perfume bottle, the dress and the writing,  whilst the Moon Drop's is a black and white photograph and Pink has a lot of warm colors. 

 There are a lot of cool colors in the background which gives the picture a relaxed feel, which gives contrast to the warmly colored bottles in the bottom part of the image and the warm and original writing in the top part of the screen. There is also a yellow blanket

The IT Crowd

The IT Crowd is a comedy which used to be shown on Channel 4. It is about people, who are slightly abnormal, working in the IT department of some company, what it creates is left a mystery for us. There are three main characters; Moss, the classic nerd, Roy, a person who didn't turn into a man and stayed as a teen, Jen, the person who is meant to be the boss of the IT department who doesn't know the difference between a monitor and a keyboard.

The viewer starts to grow a relationship with these characters because of the mistakes they make and how they get into silly situations. For example in the episode 'Friend Face', an analogy of the modern Facebook, allows the characters to meet their old friends, and 'weirdos', which gets all of them into trouble.

In the 'IT Crowd' some hard language is used, for example the word 'bitch', however they are used in such a way that the viewer doesn't really notice what has just been said because the word is either said in such a way that makes it funny or the situation where it is used it very awkward or hilarious.

We also, from the first minute, understand the characters personality. For example Moss is very conserved and tight and finds it hard, and he just doesn't want it, to make relations with anyone further than a person from his IT department or his mother. He always is wearing a tie, shirt and trousers that sometimes don't match with the rest of his clothing. He has 'crazy' bushy hair that no one in his right mind will dare to wear and he sometimes doesn't understand when to lie and when to speak the truth, and some of his exaggerations are a bit over the top which always marks a lie.

We then have Roy, a character who just couldn't leave his teenage time and become serious. He normally wears clothing that a teenager would normally wear and he's always lazy, so lazy in fact that he doesn't even bother answering phone calls from the people in the company who are having technical issues and if he does he asks question such as 'are you sure you plugged it in' and when the answer is a positive one he just says that he will send someone out, maybe. Like Moss he can't make any proper relations and always gets into trouble.

Jen is the head of the IT department but computers to her are the same are as confusing as the binary code they're working on. She like all of her colleagues  is having problems with relationships and because of her position about which she doesn't know anything, things could get awkward and for the viewers hilarious.

Comparative Assignement Introduction and 5 bullet points

This is a diagram of the essay which we'll have to write, just a couple of key points and the introduction to the images.

1920 Vivadou by Mavis

For my 1920 text I chose Mavis Vivadou because it is an art nouveau print, which were very popular at that time and it was very different to all other adverts I chose because it is exotic and dare I say, secretive.

• It is based in the middle east if you look at the fact that the woman is wearing harem pants
• It is night time which reminds you of classic stories such as 1001 Nights
• The two characters in the print look like they're dancing and the man is lifting the woman up as if they were doing ballet
• There are two lamps in the middle of the sky, which is representing dreams in this setup
• Art Nouveau
• The font is in with the style of art nouveau

1970 Moon Drops by Revlon

This is a black and white print advertising a perfume that has the name of Moon Drops. I chose this ad because It is very different to Mavis, since it hasn't got any movement at all in the photo, and to my Pink ad because this woman is looking very formal and well off. 

• The woman is wearing white clothes which are well suited with the 'Moon' part of the name
• It has a black background to contrast with the white dress
• It is a white and black picture
• The model is wearing a white dress with a scarf and simple silver jewelry which were very popular at that time
• The name of the fragrance uses font which is made out of capitals and looks like it could've been carved in rock, however the text above it is smaller and has lower case letters in it.

Present Time, Joy of Pink by Lacoste

Lacoste is a sportswear brand that made a perfume and a moving image advertisement for it that was filmed in Buenos Aries, see the link to the left of  the image. I chose this ad because unlike the other two, there wasn't much special in these characters, except for their looks of course, because they didn't have expensive jewelry and exotic harem pants. It was just a couple of friends 'hanging out' and a miracle happening to them.

• Friends from middle class of the society
• Early morning city with a lot of light limestone buildings
• Miracle of ribbons that happens to fall from the clear sky
• A car with no roof so that we could see more of the image
• The music is fast paced which matches with the target markets music preferences today, which is young women

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mq9l_g4GkI0

Comparison of how Women and Children are Represented in Fragrance Advertisement

I chose these texts because I thought that we had to make an essay on perfumes and and analyse the ads, but actually we had to just post the pictures, so now I feel a bit stupid. :-(

Mavis, 1920 Perfume

This advert tell us that if you buy this perfume your life will be filled with an exotic dream. If you look at the woman's clothing you could see that they come from Arabia which has romantic stories roaming it such as Ali Baba. This text has a lot of movement in it and dance like movements. So here is another message in this text 'if you want to be artistic and beautiful buy Mavis'.

This is 1920 New York, which was different from the European society because women were a bit more free and didn't wear very formal clothing. This is thought to be glamorous and exotic in the USA. In addition, this clothing was probably worn to a ball and was made to impress and make envious other women. This woman also has her hair packed tightly in a bundle behind her head which was fashionable at that time and which also made her head contrast with her lower body. This print also captures the movement of the woman trying which adds interest to it.

This advert is different to my other two because it shows lust and it shows a woman from a higher class whilst the other two are showing people living their everyday lives but with a pinch of difference, coming from a perfume. As mentioned before the clothing that the woman is wearing is very exotic and would be worn today only for a fancy dress party. The packaging and the bottle also look very beautiful and exotic, just like the woman and the bottle color matches the little wool puffs on her shoes and the writing below the picture.

The basic message of this advertisement is 'Buy Mavis and have prestigious men chasing after you.' because marriage at that time was the only thing that made women have an enjoyable life.

1970 Hoyt's German Cologne

I chose this advert for my 1970 perfume because it shows a child and might be refered to as 'cute'. This advert shows a child cuddling what looks like a puppy which seems to be the same size, which might represent age, as the child. The child seems to be very clean and might not have come from a very rich family because he is wearing a simple white tunic, another representation of cleanliness, and he is playing with the puppy on the floor which wouldn't have been allowed in richer families.

Around the child there is a lot of text which tells us what the perfume has in it and what it will smell like. The text is a bit faint and written in different fonts and sizes so that the main image wouldn't be spoiled and so that it would look a bit more interesting.

Here the basic message of the advert is "Buy Hoyt's and be as clean and beautiful as the child who we show to you here!" This text looks very relaxed, warm and homely which will make you want the same at your home. The child looks like one of the Greek statues which were normally very good looking and with curly hair. A person would want to see such a scene at home when they come back after a long hard day at work and to just relax in the safety of their house.

This advert is very different to my 1920's one because instead of this dark and velvety darkness of sin and lust this is a very clean and pure image for an advertisement. Even though the picture might not be as complicated and rich of details as the first one it makes up in writing and text descriptions.

2010 Lacoste Joy of  Pink Advert

As mentioned before this advert is about normal mid-classed people. The advert shows three friends join out for a ride in their car, and everything looks normal, until pink ribbons start falling from the sky and into their convertible car, because one of the women was wearing her perfume.

To make this perfume popular the company used normal everyday, but good looking, people because they were their target market. Their message was 'Buy this perfume and enjoy miracles everyday!'

As in the 1970's advert everything is pure and clean which happens in a city in the morning, the very start of the clear day, and happens in a city where a lot of the building are made out of limestone which is very clean and new.

The name Pink makes us think straight away about women and a perfect gift for them in the festive season. So here is another message aimed at men: 'If you want to see your women look like the ones we showed you buy our perfume!'

AA HERO'S

The Chief:


Lord Elrond created the fellowship of the ring and helped to win the war against Mordor by providing troops  in battles and by giving Aragorn the sword which would then save the white city of Gondor.

The Bad Boy:


Jack as a typical pirate travels the seven sea's for bounty. And as a typical pirate, you can never trust his word or his facial expression, because there is only one person he cares about most...which you might guess is himself. However another thing he prizes the same as his life is his ship, the Black Pearl.

Lost Soul:


Ever since the death of his wife, Carl couldn't find a place for himself in the world. However some events meet him with the hero of his dream and with a kid who always gets on his nerves but then gets a place in the old mans heart.

The Charmer:


Puss in Boots, a famous fable hero, is shown here as a charmer. He's always on the look out for easy money, and feline women, to make himself known and respected by all across the land. However, in order to make his dream real he needs to undergo a series of adventures which always a have a lot of humor and some epic cut scene's including him beating a man cat-style, or him chasing someone and charming women along the way.

The Professor:


Smart, cunning and always comes up with ideas of how this or that action could lead to world destruction, which always sounds crazier and more complex that the one before. He's the one who invented the time machine from a Delorean, some garbage he found and some ultra dangerous radioactive fuel which he uses to travel the time. He has a friend, Marty, who always sticks around and serves as a plan B at times or he plays the main role in many events. He has to normally listen and get confused by Docs terminology.


The Swashbuckler:



Rango is a little chameleon who gets himself into trouble through his own lies. Although he is acting brave, it isn't for the benefit of the others but for himself, so that he knows that he means something in this world. After escaping his aquarium into the world which he can't control with his imagination he finds himself in a sticky situation from which he has to esccape.

INDIANA JONES ACTION AND ADVENTURE FILM

For my extract I decided to go to the good old past and pick Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. I picked the start of the film, 8th to 10th minute, where Indiana Jones is trying to get the antidote which works against the poison which he just drank which is being kicked around by the panicking restaurant goers. Lao, the villain, played dirty and decided that he wanted to keep the diamond, with which he was meant to pay Jones for Nuthatchi, which was a jade vase with the  remains of one of the first Japanese emperors, and take the Nuthachi also. (this plan included killing Jones)

The film is an American fantasy-adventure film. We know that it is that because there is the evil Mr.Lao who wants to kill Jones and get his diamond back and of course there is the action part where Jones goes around punching and throwing burning skewers with meat into his opponents.

In this extract there is a lot of jeopardy because the viewer must be asking himself the question of will Jones get the antidote before the poison will get him and will he dodge all of the punches and bullets in his sorry poisoned state?

The spectacle here is Jones trying to grab the precious antidote which he values more than the diamond which he Lao was meant to give to him for his troubles. However there is also Willy Scott, one of Lao's girlfriends. All she knows is that Jones threw a burning skewer into Lao's friends chest and now she feverishly trying to find the diamond which fell after the antidote and which is also being kicked around. So we have three perspectives: Indiana's, who is trying to find the diamond, Willy's, who's trying to find the diamond in a pool of ice, and Lao's who is directing his men to kill Jones.

There isn't a very normal action in this extract, because we are you to be seeing the hero standing straight in front of the villain and fighting him in a glorious way, but here we see Jones crawling very frightened in a restaurant, being trodden on by the panicking crowd trying to get his hands on a little blue flask on which his life depends. However we do see him punch and being punched by the baddies.

This extract also has an element of speed, when we see the flask and the diamond flying across the highly polished floor in an expensive restaurant and also all these people running give the extract a feeling of high speed and constant change.

Now lets talk about Indiana Jones, shall we? Jones here is shown in a white suit, whilst Lao is shown in a black one of course, and he is humorous but keeps a serious face in the process of making a joke, to show the public his confidence, which then almost kills him as he takes a drink from his cocktail glass, and that he's very cool and calm about the situation. However then we see him using his fists and we understand that he used to being in situations that didn't really favour him and that he could stand up for himself. We also see that Lao really did surprise and even possibly frighten Jones when he told him about the poison, so we could see that this hero has feelings and that he isn't and empty shell of a man.

We also find out that Willy will become his side kick after she has taken the antidote when it fell near her, so it is a fact that chance will meet Jones with Willy and Jones will have to take the antidote then. We also know that when we have a two shot of Indiana and Willy bumping into each other and each of them asking if the other has seen the object that they are looking for.

Another one of Jones's sidekicks.
A boy with a sense of adventure and
humor whom Indiana got in China.
(he comes later in the film)

Because we have three characters there is a constant feeling of motion as the camera jumps from one character to another. We see point of view shots from all directions and we could see and know what the characters are experiencing.

The action happens in Shanghai, so we see exotic features as the massive gong and the Buddhist statues.

READING LYNX

Here we have a study of a Lynx advertisement which was released not that long ago. It shows a 'lot' of a woman who is bent in an unnatural position. This ad, as you probably could see, is aimed at the male sex and  the deodorant is meant to keep your cool and be the boss around your house. ("Full control")

This scene was filmed in a retro styled kitchen, which makes the image of the almost naked woman very surprising since this contrasts to the style of the kitchen. The message of this advert is that if you buy Lynx Full Control then you could have women such as this, which is used by many ads. 

(Sorry that this post isn't very long, I wasn't there during the lesson)

LUCOZADE AND LARA CROFT

Lara Croft was used by Lucozade because she was an icon of energy and she didn't get into any trouble, which happened earlier with Thompson. Originally, Lucozade was  drink for the ill and it was a health tonic, but after the war has ended people got healthier and there was no more need for health tonics, so Lucozade decided to find another market niche and they decided to make a drink for the healthy, energy drinks that refreshes and powers. But those drinks weren't very popular because they were new to the market, so   Lucozade decided to make their drink more popular by investing a large amount into advertisement.



So they went to a company that made advertisements and they thought that Lara was the strongest contestant for the script. So they decided to make a classic scene with Lara running away from some baddies, but as the video goes on her energy bar is dropping, so at the edge of the cliff she enters her backpack 'inventory' and scrolls through cola, chocolate bar and then she picks the Lucozade which allows her to evade the dogs by some cool moves and show off the drink that has just saved her life. At that time this animation, which has been edited by the forces of an Australian animation team and the company head quarters for three months because at that time animation was new.

In conclusion, Lucozade created one of the first animated ads, aimed mostly at the men and saved itself from bankruptcy.

COCA COLA HILLTOP

 This add was made by Coca Cola in 1971 after the Vietnam war and in the middle of the cold war. Here Coke uses the "Harmony" as a musical type and a peace harmony. The "Real Thing" comes from the second world war when American soldiers got coke even in Europe, from the new bottling plants the government has built for this purpose.

By seeing the shape of the bottle and drink the refreshing drink they drank at home, people were reassured and felt less lonely. The real thing from America was always in reach and Coca Cola still makes new bottling plants all over the world.

Coke also uses people from all races and countries to show that all around the world people are drinking Coca Cola and that you should drink it also.

Also this advert shows that all of these people who are very different stand together in in harmony and the thing that they all share is that bottle of coke which they are holding. So coke shows that it's a great company that managed to bring all of these people together in a friendship like no other.

The company also uses a song which has a good chorus so that people will remember their advert.

In conclusion I think that Coca Cola used smart advertising techniques to create an image of them giving this drink that will help the world be one and harmonious.

Here's a link through which you could see the video:
Hilltop Advert Link

This is my prep on different camera angles which we were set.

Establishing shot, is normally used to show the viewer where the action is taking place. For example in the picture to the right of this text a large and modern city is shown, which tells us that the action will take place in an urban environment.

Two shot is used to show the reaction of both  characters at the same time. Here we see that one of the characters stares coolly at the other whilst he stares back with a sense of question in his glare.

  

This is a point of view shot which  is used to make the viewers see what the character see's.

FIRST MEDIA LESSON

Hello world!
This is my first media homework, to create a blog and a post about the first media lesson.

We were told by our teacher that media is a subject that always progresses forward and unlike other subjects like maths and geography, which change very slightly over time, media always changes because people on Earth create new software and  get new ideas for sharing information.

We were also told that we will be studying different camera angles,  types of media and we are going to  study some media software.