Wednesday, 1 October 2014
Gender Analysis - Wire in the Blood
The wire in the blood has many areas of textual analysis within the clip of the TV programme to display the different genders involved.
Camera shots;
First it is displayed
in the camera shots in the first scene, where Tony is speaking to Alix. An over
the shoulder shot is being used; this could represent the male gaze, showing
that the man is viewing the woman as an object. Another camera shot is used in
the next scene where the camera follows the male character, Tony; this shows
dominance in his character as he proves to be a significant part of the TV
series.
Lighting;
At the beginning of
the clip, we can see that natural lighting is used, when the scene is mainly
focused around the man, the lighting is dark, however in the second scene at
the women’s house we can see the contract of the lighting and how it is light,
with her décor, such as the orange walls. These two scenes show the complete
opposite of one another and show the feminine side of Alix’s house, but the
masculine side of the scene when it is mainly focused around Tony. As often
dark, over powers light this could suggest that Tony is the dominant character
over Alix.
Mise En Scene;
Tony wears all black
throughout the scenes of the series, this shows that he is professional and has
an important part in the series. This is also another way in which the
programme asserts dominance. Gender is also represent when Tony is working out
what has happened, this represents the intelligence of the man and how he works
out what has actually happened, this is not given to the woman, Alix, to work
out as the dominance of the mans intelligent is shown through this way.
Beyonce 1+1 analysis
Beyoncé displays several different scenes within
this video that are associated with sex, nudity and intimacy, both shown
through the way in which she displays herself throughout the video and how the
unknown man acts around her.
The first shot moves down unveiling the bareness of
Beyoncé, as she wears nothing, sexualizing her body instantaneously, setting
the scene as we establish the ideas of why she is naked, linking in with sex,
nudity and orgasms.
Her hair appears messy which links in with the
essence of her having sex. This appeals to the male gaze as she objectifies
herself sexually, stripping herself from her natural beauty and personality.
The
next scene then solely focuses on her lips as they are slightly parted,
enticing the male gender in, she appears desperate for love. Her lips are
enhanced with sheen to make them look bigger, this is another way in which she
sexualizes her body parts, linking in with the male gaze.
After this scene we are presented with Beyoncé, who
is glancing directly at the camera with minimalistic clothing being shown,
being the too straps she is holding, as if she were to take them off. This
extreme close up enhances her features such as her lips and eyes.
Beyoncé
sings about being intimate with a love interest and appears in various shots
wearing this strapless see-through dress, which she strips off to give the
impression of being naked.
Her skin is glowing/ wet looking highlighting her
natural features. This could link to sweat, showing that she is so desperate for
a man to love her, also linking with sex and intimacy between her and her
mystery lover.
We are presented with a half body shot of her which
focuses mainly on the nude dress in which she is wearing it shows that the
scene is intimate, mainly shown through her translucent dress, ultimately, this
shows us the ‘easiness’ of her personality, also linking in with the
desperation of love and intimacy between her and someone else. Her eyes glance
directly at the camera in this shot, which we refer to as an invitational look.
Her chest glows and is highlighted through the
wetness in which is displayed on her, to show the main focus of this part of
the video.
Beyoncé then tilts her head backwards, she parts her
lips once again as she moves her hands down from the top of her body to the
bottom seductively. Not only does this invite men to see her as an object, but
she also does as she gropes herself, feeling her body parts. We can see that
she is not wearing any clothing, another way in which she sexualizes herself.
She then brings her arms up behind her head in a position,
which relates with sex. She glances mystically over the camera, as if she were
infused with pleasure.
She runs her fingers through her hair and tilts her
head back again Her mouth is parted at all times and her eyes remain focused in
one specific position, we link this in with sex and pleasure.
“Make love to me” entices her male lover in as her
desperation is shown through her elongated words. Her eyes appear watery as if
she were to cry showing that she is unable to cope without a man in her life.
The male dominance is shown throughout as we are shown random clips of him,
however we never fully see his face.
In this clip we see the male wrapping his arms around Beyoncé
as if she were a possession. We can see that her hands are also griping onto
him, as she allows him to dominate her. Her body is objectified, as she is
naked and embraced by the man, she lets this happen as she is so desperate for
love.
At the end we are presented with a close up of her
face, she is breathing heavily, her skin is glowing; she is looking seductively
at the camera, as she prolongs her blinks. After previously seeing the mystery
man in her video take possession of her we can then link this in, with the fact
that Beyoncé has gained pleasure and has found love through her sexual domineer
which we link with sex and desperation.
Why did Dredd flop at the Box Office?
The film Dredd was first released on the 7th
of September 2012, as a 3D only film. This film was widely recognized before it
had even been released due to previous hype around the failed 1995 version,
staring Stallone, based upon the comic book, though this was a previous flop,
as the character Dredd, had shown his face in the film, however the mask symbol
was never to be originally unveiled, leaving Dredd fans distraught, knowing
that the whole plot had been twisted. The film was on a tight budget, at 45
million dollars, with most of the spending being on the 3D cameras involved and
no 2D screenings were to be distributed yet. The failure of Dredd was to be
expected… after the poor effort from the previous film, the low budget and lack
of marketing, all of these contributing factors proved that Dredd was ill-fated
even before the release of the popular comic to become a film, but what else
was devoted to making the film such a failure?
Judge Dredd is a fictional character whose comic strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD, is the
magazine's longest running, having been featured since its second issue in 1977
and is one of the most highly/well known comic strip characters known. The
first film, which was created in 1995, staring Sylvester Stallone, directed by
Danny Cannon, has proven to be a massive failure previously, due to its lack of
being able to follow the story line of the original comic book, in which its
fans had adore. The film was such a big flop, what could possibly go wrong for
Pete Travis, after all, he knew all the faults, in the 1995 version, that had
to be changed to turn the film around to be much more desirable for its long
awaiting audience, he pretty much had it all covered for him to be able to
recreate one of the most highly respected comic book stories of all time.
Though he had the previous version to base off on, this proved quite
challenging for Travis, and thought you think he would have recreated his own,
improved film of the previous one, his version of Dredd (2012) proved to be a
flop too, this was shown through many different areas in his work. The actors
used in the newest version of Dredd were fairly unknown and were definitely not
classed as “A-List” stars. Though Karl Urban has been based in a wide variety
of science-based films previously, his reputation had not gained as much
recognition and the parts in which he played in different films, such as Star
Trek or RED, were not classed as main parts. This brought less attention for
the film and its fan base was not as near enough as big as it could have been
if A-List stars were to be used, e.g. Ryan Gosling. Pete Travis himself, was
also not a huge phenomenon in the directing industry, he had been fairly new to
film production, as he has only directed 3 films from 2004. His main work was
included in the TV, in series such as, The Jury, Home Farm Twins and Cold Feet.
His lack of success in the film industry also brings the fan base for the film
down as he is not as well known, in comparison to if Tim Burton were to direct
the film.
Another contributing factor would be the
budget of the film. The film was only released in 3D as it was recorded on the
highly expensive 3D cameras, which took up most of their budget for the film.
Each 3D camera used for the filming of Dredd would have cost around $500,000,
this cost will soon begin to add up as the number of cameras begin to increase,
proving that most of the budget used for the film was mainly used for the
shooting of it. The budget was already proving that it was limited and was
quite a small amount of money in comparison to other films which were brought
out in the same year e.g. The Amazing Spiderman; budget – $230 million, Skyfall
007; budget - $200 million and Prometheus; budget – $130 million. When
comparing Dredd to any of the previous films we can see the significant
difference in budget, however the reason for this could be that these films are
produced by global institutions such as Hollywood, whereas Dredd was a British
made film, proving less dominant than bigger/more successful film franchises,
ultimately showing the competition in which the film faced in 2012, this would
be especially tricky for Travis as the people involved in the directing of the
films above were much more well known than he was. The expenditure of the 3D
camera Travis decided to use, proved costly, in both money and the distribution
of the film, especially in marketing. This left little money for the film to be
able to be distributed widely for a larger audience, leaving the number of
people who were aware of the film to be released, limited. The fact that the
film was mainly filmed with 3D cameras/ Red x cameras leads onto the point that
some cinemas were unable to display the film when it first came out e.g. Art
house/ other independent cinemas, obviously this would drag the ratings and
size of the audience down for the film, as it was not widely available for
everyone to view.
Pete Travis has managed to incorporate a
large amount of violence, gore and sexual scenes throughout the whole of the
film, making the certificate of the film an 18. In comparison with other films
made that year, such as Avengers Assemble, being a 12A, this shows that this
type of film can include the same amount of action as Dredd, with better
graphics and HD quality, as well as it being an interesting film, for all of
the family to enjoy. By cutting out a large amount of the audience (being under
18) this means they were decreasing in the amount of audience in which the film
could potentially be distributed to, which could also potentially increase the
spread of the films popularity, whether that be globally or virally – either
way the film would have gained much more of an audience if the film were to be
considered as appropriate to younger viewers. For the film to become more
successful they would need to make sure that it is accessible for all
ages/areas of audience in order to make the film much more appealing, rather
than aiming the film at an older generation, which is one of the main reasons
why they got the profit in which they did, by making it widely available to
everyone, they could essentially increase their profit by a significant amount,
making the film much more successful.
The production of the film was mainly based
in South Africa, Cape Town in late 2010 during the San Diego Comic-Con
International; this ultimately lowered the cost for the production side of the
film. It was lowered specifically when employing cast and crew members (40 of
which were imported) compared to if they were to film in Europe/ America. South
Africa is an unlikely place where global institutions would be filming, to
create a top grossing film, filmed somewhere like America, we are able to see
the cost difference in the different locations in which they were filmed,
showing that Dredd was a fairly cheap in the location side of the production.
Even though they had proven to be saving money in Cape Town, this did not
benefit the marketing side of the project, where this was a big downfall in
distribution to a wide audience. Not only was the whole production location a
total flop, but so was the location of the city within it, “Mega City One”, the
lack of change in location made the film very tedious to watch, as the dark and
dreary atmosphere that followed the characters throughout the film beckoned
sheepishly at the audience without the intention of engrossing them, unlike the
film Avengers Assemble where the scenes are constantly changing with a variety
of different backgrounds making the audience engage solely on what was
happening at a particular point. The director, Joss Whedon, though he has not
be part of many major productions has proved that he knows how to create a
potentially popular film, with the likes of Toy Story, being a big hit with all
audiences. This comparison shows the distinct features of how different
directors who have gained more experience with the production of their more
popular films are able to adapt to different audiences to be able to produce
quality films, appealing to everyone, unlike Pete Travis, who has yet to gain
more experience with higher quality films, as he has mainly been working as a
TV series director through his career, he is not yet widely recognized in the
film industry.
The lack of marketing for the film proved
costly for Pete Travis as his aim was never to fully gain worldwide recognition
for the film, how could he? He’d spent most of the budget on the production of
the film, yet this had not even proved to have been the successful part of the
project. Dredd, like any other standard film, released a teaser of the official
trailer, and after that the actual trailer, however these 2 marketing attempts
were not the main areas of distribution he used, in fact he used a website
called, “The Dredd Report” (A spin-off of “The Drudge Report”) to market and
distribute his new film. His intentions were good, Travis used social
networking as a form of being able to gain a larger audience for the release of
the film, knowing that social networking is now becoming increasingly popular,
being one of the most powerful sources to be able to share things with the
world. Another large input to distributing the film would be Lionsgate.
Lionsgate was to be seen as one of the main contributors when marketing this
film and was ultimately the “pick up” for the film to be able to even remotely
be recognized by the America audience. Other popular films such as The Hunger
Games and The Possession were also market and distributed by Lionsgate in the
same year, so it’s no wonder that Dredd got lost in all of the fiasco, with
these other 2 (and more) films about, as profit proved higher for these two
films than it did Dredd, but was this Lionsgate’s fault? Being a “mini-major”
studio distributing global instituted films, it’s probably not possible to
blame Lionsgate for this mess of marketing Dredd, they were ultimately the
improvement of Dredd’s worldwide distribution in the end, the main loss to this
area of the production of the film, would be the money left over to be able to
advertise the film effectively, or in this case, ineffectively.
In conclusion, overall, I would base the
flop of Dredd, solely on the budget in which the film was provided with and how
the director of the film, Pete Travis decided to spend it. We can see from the
areas in which were spent the most on in the production of the film e.g. 3D
cameras, that they did not benefit the films overall end product greatly. Many
cinemas were unable to display the films leaving less opportunity for the film
to be distributed worldwide. Another main factor of the flop of Dredd would be
the competitive Market in which it faced in 2012. Some of the most grossing
films were released during this time, e.g. Gangster Squad, The Amazing Spiderman,
Skyfall 007 etc., proving that the film would have to be considerably superior
to the market in which it faced, however this proved difficult, for many
reasons e.g. the low budget and the lack of “A-List” actors/production team
that were involved, which ultimately contributed to the lack of popularity as
well as the flop of the entire film.
Tuesday, 30 September 2014
Monday, 29 September 2014
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