Contexts of Practice 2 GCOP200 - 1st December

Thursday 1st December 2016              Contexts of Practice 2            John Sealey/Lucy Leake

Developing my Literature Review 

Aims 
Start my literature view with a killer argument (of my choice, towards the end I will sum up the research and whether my opinion has changed towards my argument.

Content  

Look into the behaviour within modular narrative film as well as wildlife documentaries, are there any similarities, do the movements in front of camera between these two topics give off the same emotions to there viewers. On closer inspection and research I feel as if there is a similarity between the way narratives loop.....Oman Fast and The towering inferno

(Talk about examples and think how I can link my ideas)

Heavily influenced by Oman Fast short film "5,000 feet is best, talk about the way that the film didn't have a start, middle and end I feel like it shared the same physical emotion with the viewers to that of a wildlife documentary. However I feel like the story for Oman Fast, the way the pilots story changes and gets interfered, this could be linked too the types of action that go on between species of animals when one trespasses on another habitat.

(Text to back up or even talk about - linking to my ideas)

Possibility of using Leonardo Da Vinchi's image for evolution of man - Cycle of life, cycle of narrative within these two different types of films, one the cycle is about the action that is going on, the way he enters a room over and over but tells a different story, the same process is repeated within wildlife where we will be introduced to the species, the narrator will talk about the habitat, lastly they will show action where an animal is being disturbed or threatened by another species presence or violent behaviour.

Central Topic - loops in narrative and documentary wildlife filmmaking, is there a link - examples using Steve McQueen films, Cincinnati kid and towering inferno, loops with the card playing for Cincinnati kid, loop in heading to every floor in the building to evacuate the people within Towering Inferno. 

Sub Topic - behaviour of characters and animals within film, do there movements present different emotions. -

When we see animals being hurt onscreen, the majority of people will feel some kind of sadness which leads to anger, how about in Cincinnati kid where Steve Mc Queen is caught cheating at the start, the actors around him build up anger where as we as the audience will find this funny, we still get mixed emotions through modular narrative films and wildlife documentaries.

Contexts of Practice 2 GCOP200 - 17th November

Thursday 17th November 2016                   Contexts of Practice             John Sealey

Literature Review - Narrative Story Telling

How narrative develops within films, the difference between a narrative short film and a nature documentary.

Talk about the cycle, the way the story line loops over and over as the interviewee is telling a story about being a drone pilot.

The way the story gets interrupt and sidetracked I see that as a predator invading another animals habitat.

Find an extract about the evolution of man, tie it in with the footage of monkeys from life story, link the cycle of life and the repeated storyline to evolution of man. - find a quote from Charles Darwin online and use that to back up the idea of evolution through the nature documentaries and then find something about a filmmaker's interpretation of narrative story telling.

Start of by talking about what is narrative, then my subject for modular narrative and the difference between modern cinema and that of a nature documentary.

Primary Research - film clips

Omer Fast - 5,000 Feet is the Best - http://www.gbagency.fr/en/42/Omer-Fast/#!/5-000-Feet-is-the-Best/site_medias_listes/1444 - Everytime that the pilot enters a different door he tells another story about the dreams he has had as a pilot, meaning that he never finishes the main story that he has been asked to tell and is being filmed.

Life Story Series - Narrated by David Attenborough
Young Fox Hunting in the snow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EiV-ERKRRs - Travel 100km a day just in search of food, same day routine, temperatures sidetrack the fox as it becomes harder to dive for lemmings, becoming the hunter in the snow.

Secondary Research - extract about the evolution of man

Life is all about evolution. What looks like a mistake to others has been a milestone in my life. Even if people have betrayed me, even if my heart was broken, even if people misunderstood or judged me, I have learned from these incidents. We are human and we make mistakes, but learning from them is what makes the difference. Amisha Patel
 https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/evolution.html

Contexts of Practise GCOP200 - 3rd November

Thursday 3rd November 2016.                Contexts of Practice.             Lecturer: Lucy Leake

Laura Mulvey - PDF Reading - Male Gaze

Action Research - Practical Demonstration - bring together search materials

Key Words

Enunciation - form of speech, speaking, what am I saying

"Laura Mulvey got people talking about representation through her article man as the bearer of the look"

Always remember to support your ideas through action research, whether it is valid

Have to look at either gender, race or sexuality

Action research task - Find a piece of text and support this by two video clips

The defiant ones -1958 - Stanley Kramer

Text - "WE WORK WITH YOU" We offer hands on practical help and support to tackle issues in your business with you.

Slides and Information

Contexts of Practice 2 GCOP200 - 20th October

Thursday 20th October 2016                             Contexts of Practice 2           John Sealy/Lucy Leake

Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema - Laura  (referenced below)

Notes for the chapter read

Women are seen as phallic symbols, erotic objects - Pleasure as a radical weapon

Looking itself is seen as a source of pleasure - fulfilling your desire

Scopophilia - Freud's belief about taking other people as objects, subjecting them to a controlling and curious gaze - His particular examples centre around the voyeristic activities of children - they always want to look and find out about other peoples bodies, so we are looking as a form of erotic pleasure. 

Mainstream film focuses its attention on the human form

Women are simultaneously looked at and portrayed, there appearance is coded for strong and visual impact.

A lady's visual presence can tend to work against the development for a storyline, freezing the flow of any action in movements of erotic contemplation.

References
http://www.composingdigitalmedia.org/f15_mca/mca_reads/mulvey.pdf

Contexts of Practice 2 GCOP200 - Media Representations - 13th October

Thursday 13th October 2016                    Contexts of Practice 2               John Sealy/ Lucy Leake
 
Session 2 

Had a visual look at the start of the film.
Attack the Block (2011) - Joe Cornish. (2011). Attack the Block. [Online Video]. 13 May 2011. Available from:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1478964/. [Accessed: 13 October 2016].

Next we had a look at a conservative poster which dated back too the early 80's.

Conservative Poster (1983) - Labours Say He's Black, Tories Say He's British

Conservative. (1983). Labour says he's black. Tories say he's British. (1983). Available: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=1983+CONSERVATIVE+POSTER&safe=strict&espv=2&biw=1389&bih=1199&tbm=isch&imgil=OIHnvBjookdkkM%253A%253B2heCYTqtkOPzOM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fconservativepartyarch. Last accessed 13th October 2016.

Analysis for poster

Use of a black man as the main focal point for the poster and its subject matter. It outlines "Labour say he's black, Tories say he's British, I feel like this is a campaign in which the conservatives are trying to raise awareness to grab the attention of the black community of Britain. After further research at more conservative posters, I feel like they use harsh details and pictures to there messages across, as well as bold words like Black and British.

He stands upright, looks like he has power, arms crossed symbolise he is relaxed, he is confident about the job/type of work that he is doing.

Points I raised during discussion

What does it mean to be British?

Placement of everything on the poster? Why are they placed here, the size of the image against the text, the main bottom line is big in size, caught my attention as the first point of contact as well as the dominant image of the black man, with his arms crossed and wearing a suit.

Light and dark on the subjects face - made me think that perhaps the poster is being aimed at multiple cultures as we see different shades of black. The suit symbolises upper class, conservatives are using harsh details and text to represent but at the same time they are grabbing attention of the black community in Britain, whether they agree with the stereotype or have feelings against the subject matter, you would think they would vote to try and make a change.

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Krept and Konan - Dunya (Music Video) - Krept and Konan. (2016). Krept & Konan - Dunya (BrOTHERHOOD Official Soundtrack). [Online Video]. 30 August 2016. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn7OqnInzQE. [Accessed: 13 October 2016].

My chosen media representation is a song by Krept and Konan "Dunya" which has been used as one of the soundtracks for the recent release of "Brotherhood", directed by Noel Clarke.

 

Written Analysis for chosen Music Video

I have chosen to research about the Krept and Konan music video for "Dunya", the way the music video is put together I find really fascinating as its not your typical everyday grime video, in fact this song is used as one of the backing soundtracks for Noel Clarke's new edition "Brotherhood". I haven't seen this film yet so I thought I could really research about how this song would fit that type of genre, what kind of elements are similar and could be used to outline the kind of crime that we witness whilst watching Anuvahood, Kidulthood, Adulthood and Brotherhood.

One of the artists is sat upstairs talking about getting a contract, whilst the other is downstairs watching the news on the tv, we slowly see that he is rebelling against what is happening in day to day life around America, which I linked back to the types of crime that happens within Brotherhood which takes place in London. However what I found interesting was that the same type of drama happens to the artists later on in there local living courter - reinforcing how often it takes place.

They then portray the same type of negative actions but flip the coin so we see the police as the victim which made me think about the riots that have gone on and how two communities come together and try to push each other out, like immigration, where hoards of cultures move from one country to another. 

Lastly we flip back to the first situation but it is portrayed in a positive way where the two respect one another back out on the street, however this situation doesn't get showed off unlike the others which links back to the way that in reality we don't see people respecting one another, always disagreeing, fighting, outbreaks everywhere - reminds me off the lyrics in the song "Its all crazy in the Dunya, its going crazy in the Dunya" 

Within the video itself, the artists are portrayed across wearing the clothes we associate with hip hop music, key to note that they are the same clothes that are worn by the actors within crime films like the ones I mentioned. We link hoodies and guns to that of a thug which can be reinforced by the type of language that they use when speaking to one another.

Props
They use a gun in the first two scenes which we associate with black people and crime, this is portrayed across in the sequel movies like Anuvahood, Kidulthood, Adulthood and Brotherhood, however in the films the actors are both white and black. 

The flashy car that we see in the music video is dark matte black, these types of cars are associated with grime music videos, other movies would have to be the franchise of "Fast and Furious". 

Contexts of Practice - GCOP200

Thursday 6th October 2016                             Contexts of Practice                      Lucy Leake

Introduction to Contexts of Practice

Split into groups and given a topic  - My group was given Free Cinema (British) to research into. 

Things I learnt 

* Had a huge influence on British New Wave - Many of the films created within this period had been categorised as part of the kitchen sink dramas. Adaptions of novels or plays written by members of Britain's so-called "Angry Young Men". This group was made up of working and middle class playwrights and novelists who were prominent in the 1950's.

* British Free Cinema, usually down scaled aspects of melodrama in favour of focusing on real life situations and themes such as single motherhood and the corruption of the Rugby League business. 

* The genre shows the clash between the working class and the upper middle class and also the rise of the youth culture of the late 50s. 

* Aimed at the youth class up north 

* The use of black and white fast stock film which gave a grainy look 

* Filmed in particularly industrialise northern cities, used natural light