How typical are your chosen texts of their genre?

Fish Tank is known as a social realism film, or a 'kitchen sink' drama because a lot of it is based around the natural living area of the characters. Social realism films like this aim to portray ordinary everyday lives of people and everyday situations but with a twist to make it more interesting to the niche target audience. It's set in an urban environment, using high rise tower blocks and a run down estate as the backdrop to the characters' stories. The use of this setting is typical of the social realism genre because it aims to identify with 'ordinary' people, and can be compared with the likes of older social realism films such as 'Saturday night and Sunday morning' which is set in a run down terraced housing area.

The opening scene begins with the sound of breathing until the camera focuses on Mia, the main character, making it clear the sound is coming from her. This diegetic noise is frequent throughout the film which is

B1 - Discuss the audience appeal of your three main texts (TV) - 30 marks

     Mad Men's main target audience of both male and female adults who are subscribed to Sky Atlantic can be drawn in by various factors within the show. The prime reason is a sense of nostalgia to the programme, with typical 1960's offices and general working atmosphere. The identities of men and women were clear cut and this simplicity can draw audiences in because of the separate rules.

    The 'retrophilia' of the show is portrayed through the various characters. Don Draper, the chivalrous alpha male, commands the screen with an air of authority and the sophisticated Joan Harris is a woman of 1960's ideals, possessing the desirable hour-glass figure and mature dress sense. These characters' fashion sense and characteristics all factor in attracting an audience presumably from that time.

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    Lost would be seen as a mainstream production and is produced by ABC which is an American company. It would count as a hybrid genre since it is fantasy, sc-fi and action, therefore attracting a wide audience because of the versatility of the programme and different conventions of each genre. Using an ensemble cast with actors of various nationalities, including a Chinese couple who cannot speak English and a solitary British character allowing an international audience to be drawn in. This allows for more members of the audience to be able to personally identify with the programme, as shown in the theory of Uses and Gratifications. Stereotypical characters are also used, with some applying specifically to Propp's theory on characters. From the opening scene, it is clear that Jack is seen as the hero and Sawyer as the villain.  There is also a neutral setting of an unknown forest environment, meaning that audiences can be attracted since there is no obvious area to where the location is. 

In the polar bear scene it starts off with a wide shot, allowing the audience to see all the characters from a distance and also them in the deep forest surrounded by trees and foliage, then the crane camera zooms in on them and tracks them as they are walking through the forest. This makes the audience see how truly isolated they are but also how they are all sticking together. As Sayeed and Sawyer begin fighting and raising their voices about turning on the radio, whip pans are used and diegetic sound is used to emphasise the sound of the oncoming polar bear. The camera whip pans across the characters showing each of their different reactions towards the sound, also putting them in shallow focus to truly emphasise their fear. For the audience, this creates an enigma because they don't know what's coming and essentially are in the same position as the characters as all they can hear too is the sound of whatever is getting closer.
    Once the diegetic noise seems to get louder, the non diegetic music also increases with high pitched sounds to fully create the terrifying experience that the characters are also facing. As the characters begin to run away, the camera tracks alongside with them, making it feel like the audience is running with them. As the camera switches to Sawyer holding the gun, the setting almost surrounds him however he is still in focus, and as the first gun shot is made, the camera switches back to the other characters and portrays their reactions as they stop running. Switching back to Sawyer, the audience perhaps portray the same sort of shock, as they question where Sawyer retrieved the gun but also his bravery at shooting whatever is coming. The camera constantly switches between the oncoming white mass that is eventually found to be the polar bear, as well as Sawyer making constant shots. This builds up tension within the audience as the bear carries on running even though Sawyer keeps shooting it. As the polar bear jumps towards Sawyer, the audience see from the bear's point of view Sawyer jumping back and then falling.
    Once the characters all gather around the bear, we still don't fully see the full form of the bear and only see it through the characters legs from a low angle. This means the audience may not be able to recognise that it's a polar bear until Kate says "That's not just a bear, that's a polar bear" and then at this point the scene ends, leaving the audience questioning many things such as why is there a polar bear in a tropical forest, where Sawyer had got the gun and where the characters are in general. This enigmatic atmosphere is particularly prominent in this scene because of all these things.

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Louis Theroux: Most Hated Family In Crisis is a follow up documentary to the 2007 documentary Most Hated Family In America and was broadcast on the 3rd of April 2011 at 9pm. Just from the time it was shown, audiences would mostly be adults after it's shown after the watershed and also as it is a follow up documentary, many of the viewers would be previous viewers from the last programme. There would also be fans of Louis Theroux's 'gonzo' style journalism where he puts himself right in the situation and the interviews are all personal and first hand.  It can also be argued that the BBC's aim to 'entertain, inform and educate' is fulfilled with this documentary which the audience would be attracted by. The documentary received mostly positive reviews with 3.33 millions viewers and also being the most popular programme of the week of BBC2.

Within the documentary, Louis Theroux's approach to the religious extremists seems to be making them out to be a bit crazy and completely out there, which one of the participants of the show also recognised saying Theroux made them out to be 'a bit buffoonish' but that it was obviously 'good for the ratings'. This humorous style of presenting the documentary would appeal to audiences since merely presenting the facts may come across as less entertaining than showing the odd side to the Westboro Baptist Church. However, audiences could also see a sense of exploitation especially when Steve states about how they know how Louis Theroux presents them to be.

The opening scene straightaway sets out how the rest of the documentary is likely to pan out, with the members of the church picketing at the side of the road, and a protest on the other side. With cars beeping and people shouting across at each other, the first thing Louis Theroux says is "Is it possible you've become weirder?". With the audience being shocked straight from the outset, it means that they should theoretically carry on watching the programme, since from a Uses and Gratifications point of view it would provoke social interaction. 

Film Posters for inspiration

B2: Explore the impact of digital technologies on your selected industry

Over the years, digital technology has become more prolific when it comes to promoting music and selling records. With artists such as Lady Gaga, digital technology is especially important in her success  and widespread fan base, with some industry experts suggesting that a third of her total income comes from the social media website of Twitter. This is because she makes it a point to interact with as many fans as she can through the site, and ensures her fans purchase her music legally by creating a relationship with them through para-social interaction. Before the release of singles from The Fame in 2008, Lady Gaga was previously an unknown in terms of chart music, only doing fairly small performances with very different music to what she does now. However, after the release of Just Dance, her popularity increased when her song rocketed into the international charts. As of January 2013, Just Dance had over 150 million views on Youtube. This single was originally released digitally worldwide and has sold over a million copies. The existence of Youtube has really helped increase Lady Gaga's fame as more people can access her music. The iTunes store and Amazon have also helped her fans to buy her music legally for a fairly good price.


Her online success is comparable with the equally successful Nirvana, who as their album 'Nevermind' was released in 1991, didn't get the advantages that Lady Gaga had with digital technology such as Twitter. Facebook and YouTube, however since their singles have been uploaded on YouTube  and various fansites keeps their music still going today.

To what extent are your chosen texts typical of their genre? (30 marks)

Text - Sin City

Sin City is recognised as a post-modern film as it is a hybrid genre, made up of various different genres including film noir, comic book and aspects of horror. 

There are many typical conventions of film noir, for example in an urban environment with damp streets and stormy weather being used as pathetic fallacy. In the text Sin City, this setting is prominent throughout the film, and an example of this is the scene when the prostitutes are shooting at the cops from the roof of the building. Another convention of film noir that links to this scene is

Film Directors

In both of my texts, the directors of them are male

This could be relevant in looking at a patriarchal filmmaking perspective and how they represent women

Scenes for Research Investigation

The scenes below may be referenced in some form in my Research Investigation to show the stereotypes of teenage girls.

This is the Mean Girls cafeteria scene, mainly looking at high school stereotypes as opposed to specific teenage girls.

This clip looks at when Cady meets The Plastics, perhaps more relevant to teenage girl stereotypes.

Looking at the teenage girl stereotypes in Mean Girls at Halloween

This is when Olive first lives up to her new identity in Easy A

Olive and Brandon pretend to have sex, and when they're done Brandon is congratulated and Olive is ignored, thus showing that when boys have sex, they're seen as a 'stud' and girls are just seen as easy.