Thriller film - MISSING.

Revised location shots.

As we decided to change the location from Prince of wales street to underneath the bridge on prince of wales street near the river, we have taken new location shots to comply with our location in our film.

This is behind the steps where the boy hides, whilst the girl is walking down the steps in the first shot.

These are the steps that the girl walks down in the first shot and feature in the background of some of the following shots.

This is the overall location the line of lamposts along the path provide us with the lighting that we needed and also helped us to have a limited and pastel colour palette within the film.

This is the bridge that the boy and girl walk over just before the boy tried to attack the girl, the bridge reinforces the sense of insecurity on the girls behalf.

The gate that features in a shot in the film, this shows an escape for the girl.

Images by; Lexie Ferguson

Jane Eyre Notes - Construction of class and status.

Mise-en-scene

• The colour red is used connoting; passion, exotic, fairytale or dream like world, intertexual reference to red riding hood.
• Pink glow/filter on Jane; daydream, memory, unrealistic.
• Creative, vivid imagination, looking at books - showing Jane is secluded.
• Red room
• Inferior status - "Jane is the youngest, so they hold an attitude of we dont care about her"
• John Need (Janes cousin) - bully, see his feet first, trying to fins Jane hidden behind a curtain; showing she is not intergrated into the family as he is.
• Status; family portrait, the act of having an artist to paint a family portrait in your home and the costumes connote wealth, jane is not included " shes not part of our family", says one of her cousins - her status is lower than her aunts and cousins.
• Janes mum and dad died, left in care of her auntie and uncle, her uncle died and was therefore left in the care of her auntie who dispises her, she treats Jane as an outsider, her uncle haunts the red room.
• Non ambient- inside scene, candle is used to light a dark outside scene.
• Epidemic ofm typhoid hit the school in reality and is documented in the programme - themes are based on reality within the programme
• Helen- Janes only close friend dies of typoid; preliferites art preiod shown as the background, represents helen as spiritual, angel - is always on Janes mind
• Changes at the house; lighting, ambient, outside
• Non ambient lighting ; chiarascuro
• Music; birds connotes house may be haunted
• Horse; belongs to rochestor refelcts his personality in the way the horse is behaving, violent, passionate, jane is scared of the horse and rochestor; never had a lot to do with men
• Has control of the realtionship; he needs her pychsical support as he has injured himself by falling off his horse.
• Mist; curious, dream like, fantasy, spooky, illusionary, eery
• She had to change her clothes; not good enough for rochestor; status - higher class
• Moral high ground; jane eyre; standing up on stairs - has to walk down the stairs to be at his level although he is has a higher social status thna jane, she has a higher moral status than rochestor.

Editing

• Cuts from Jane to Mr Brokelhurst
• Blue filter - sadness, depression, Brokelhurst ; cold character - represent school as a whole

Sound

• Diegetic and non-diegetic; more realistic and authenticity
• Soundtrack; Fantasy
• Sounds of the jungle; connecting to the book Jane is reading

Camera Shots

• Extreme close up of Jane; connotes vulnerabilty, brings the audience closer to her, feeling sorry for her - high angle shows her inferiority.
• Brokelhurst; school teacher, high status; low angle shots, high angle shot of the children connoting their inferiority and lack of importance
• Panning shot of the graveyard
• Eclipse; cutting to the future Jane is an adult
• Zoom out; gives the audience more information, reveals more characters and objects.
• Establishing shots; desert and young girl; high angle, importance of the girl medium/long shot, wide anlge shot of the girl. Jane has her back to the audinece; hidden identity, turing away from something in a `protest`.
• Pans upto thes sky, gril looks up; dreamworld, daydreaming, fantasising
• Wide angle pan of empty desert state; lonliness, passion and exotic
• Close up of Jane; importance
• Cross disolve; in and out of her dream
• Zoom in and out; breaks distinction between dream and reality.
• Close up fo fight between John and Jane - violence
• Red room- high angle, long shot, connotes her inferioty, vulnerabilty, sslightly tilted/canted anlge, confusion, disorentation.
• Handheld camera; shaky - scared
• Shot reverse shot; high angle of Jane, low angle of aunt, re-enforeces status.
• Rule of thrids- importance of the man and the paintings, status draws attention to himself.
• Eclipse - changing of time - day and night.

Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs the representation of gender in an extract from eastenders.

In the live episode from Eastenders gender is representated through the mise-en-scene, sound, camera shots and editing.

Within the mise-en-scene; Janine, the women who everyone hates is wearing very plain rather masculine casual clothing, which excludes her from everybody else who is wearing smart, formal clothing, this also creates a void between her and all the smartly dresses glamourous wedding guests, her costume also shows how isolated she is. The colours of the costumes also connotes their status as, Peggy; an older women, who runs the pub, is wearing a very glamorous costumewhich is purple, the use of this colour connotes royality and upper class, this also shows the strength of older women in society. The young girl, Lucy is wearing a very revealing top, which represents her as a `sex object` and perhaps shows her inferiority to men; this is particularly apparant when her fathers enemy, Phil acts very violently towards the teenager. Many of the males are wearing suits which are darker colours, which represent them as being smartly dressed, however the use of dark colours represents their true characters and the way they act violently towards women.

The lighting is mainly non-ambient lighting as it is set at night time.

The camera shots that are used show the reactions between characters in conversations. Close up shots are used, however not very frequently they were mainly used to show stacey in a heated argument with her husband, his father and uncle, within the argument two person shots and over the shoulder shots are frequently used, they empahsise the way that Bradley, Max and Jack are crowding around Stacey and being very dominant within the argument. The males body language in this argument is very aggresive and dominant towards the women. The males in the extract are shown as typical white british, working class, males; although they are fairly violent towards the women. As far as the extract goes, all the men are hetrosexual, which represents their macho-like and masculinity.

The sound in the extract is mainly diegetic; in the streets outside scenes; people walking in the street, movements, shutting of doors, at bianca and rickys wedding in the pub the sound also consists of mainly diegetic sounds; movement, dialouge, glasses tapping together, however there is non-diegetic sounds in the background that being music, the non-diegetic soundtrack is particularly apparant in the scene in the pub cellar, where Janine and Peggy are having an argument, the use of putting these two women together for an arugment, creates differences and opposites because of their costumes; being glamourous and unglamourous, and the women being; young and old.

In conclusion, the extract represents gender in a way that men are superior to women, and men act in a violent or portective manner towards women.

Discuss the ways in which media products are distributed to audiences relating to the british film industry.

Media products are produced and distributed in institutions that are related to the audience that predominantly uses the institutions, for example Picturehouse cinemas, predominantly show independent or specialist films, whereas Vue cinema show predominantly mainstream films, they also show a wide variety of films, however picturehouse cinema only show a small selection of films.

Picturehouse and Vue cinemas may both face issues. Picturehouse cinemas may be faced with issues such as; they do not provide enough variety of films which appeal to a wide audience, therefore restricting the amount of people who use the picturehouse cinemas, therefore decreasing the cinemas profits. Picturehouse cinemas, may also face issues regarding the technology and number of screens within the cinema, for example cinema city, a picturehouse cinema in Norwich has three screens, therefore limiting the amount of films that can be shown at one time, however the cinema does have digital technology, which enables the cinema to show more films, because it is cheaper than the previous 35mm film that was used in the cinema and is still used in some cinemas.

Vue cinemas, may also be faced with issues, however picturehouse cinemas, because they are independent are more likely to be faced with more issues than Vue cinemas will be faced with. On the other hand, Vue cinemas may be faced with issues such as; competition between other mainstream cinemas [amount of showing times + their convenience, prices, location], only show mainstream, conventional films, which may not appeal to all of the target audience.

Technology has a vast impact on how media products are produced and distributed, mainly applying to the last ten years, because of the rapid growth and advancements in technology. Technology helps films to be produced and distributed by using the internet, television, mobile phones, mp3s, iPods, social networking sites, film rental, downloading, HD television, Blu-ray, 3D technology and proliferation of technology. These different types of technology allow the audience to be able to watch or download films from a larger variety of sources. The growth of technology, and expansion in the ways that we can watch films, widens the audience for films, however this will also have an effect on the amount of people who go to the cinema to watch a film, because of the growth in technology, therefore decreasing cinemas profits and stopping the cinemas from being able to expand or invest within the existing cinema complex.

Although technology, has had a positive impact of the film industry and helped it to rapidly expand, it has also let piracy happen, because of the technology that is now available, it has allowed people to either record films in the cinema and post it on the internet or record them to DVD, it also allows people to illegally download films from the internet before they have been released on to DVD, technology has also allowed people to burn DVDs for friends and family, which is against copyright laws as you are copying a DVD that you do not have any rights for. Piracy has a large impact on the film industry; it is responsible for loosing £700 million at the box office last year, just because people buy or illegally download films rather than seeing them at the cinema. Technology has a big impact of piracy, because the internet especially is the main source to pirate films. Piracy has an affect on not just cinemas but; the film industry as a whole, actors and actresses, people who work on the sets of films, DVD sales.

Piracy also decreases the amount of jobs in the film industry, which will have the biggest effect on current school and college students and their future careers. Piracy has a huge impact on independent film companies because they do not have large budgets, if their box office and DVD sales decrease, they can not afford to make other films, therefore minimising the independent film industry. It also has an affect on the amount of films that are made, because of the lack of money within the film industry, therefore leading to less producers and consequently a decrease the type and variety of films that are being made. Mainstream film companies are not badly affected by piracy, however independent film companies are, this is not economically viable, therefore creating an imbalance in the British film industry. It also gives audience less choice of films.

The increase in the investment of digital screens within cinemas has enhanced screenings in cinemas and enables cinemas to show a larger variety of films and a larger amount of films, because it is cheaper to show and get hold of digital films, as opposed to 35mm film, which is very expensive to buy. Vue and picturehouse cinemas all have digital screens within their cinemas. Although with the use of digital screens it is cheaper to show films, it also allows cinemas to stream live events from the cinemas such as live concerts and sporting events, it also allows cinemas to invite their audiences to play video games on the big screen, with other players around the world.

Location shots.

These are the location shots from our original storyboard.

This is a shot of the corner of prince of wales road where our thriller is set, the pub in the shot is at the top of the steps that the girl stumbles down in our thriller.

This is a shot of the bridge, overlooking the river and pathway were our thriller is film.

This is another shot of prince of wales road.

This is a shot of the nightclub that the girl has been in, in the original plans we were going to show the scenes in the nightclub.

Location shots by; Lexie Ferguson

Commentary by; Louise McGee

Storyboard.

This is the original storyboard that we created during the planning of our thriller, however in the final product of our thriller, we have changed the shots that we have used, because of the timing of our thriller and the fact that we were only allowed the to have a total time of two minutes of footage, in our final product we cut out the scenes of the girl and her friends, because we did not think these were very important in creating suspense and ambiguity. We also cut the club scene and the kidnapping scene involving the van, because using these we would not be able to adhere to the time limit. So we decided to just use the scenes when the girl is walking home by the river and the boy and girl meet.

Music for our thriller film.

The soundtrack to our thriller will be eerie and futuristic, as music to many thrillers, especially film noir thrillers is new and different (insomnia and third man soundtracks are both good examples of this). It should also be drone like, with slow changes, with strange out of world effects, reflecting the dreamlike, drunk effect created within the thriller. I also want a second piece of music to be used in the climax of the opening, when the girl is attacked by the girl. It should be sharp quite scary music, like the famous music in the shower scene in psycho. This music should contrast heavily to thesoundtrack for the rest of the piece, taking the audience by surprise, and throwing them off balance.

By Sam Hudson.

Casting - character sketches.

The girl; A seventeen year old girl, brown hair, sixth form student, enjoys going out; the story shows the girl after a night out on prince of wales street in norwich after she is very drunk and is being followed by a man, whilst she is walking home by the river in riverside, norwich. Firstly, we believe that the man, is acting as her protector; offering to walk her home and giving her hand when she falls over by the river, however we see how he turns and becomes the villain not the protector. This portrays the girl as being; vulnerable and perhaps adhering to the stereotypes of an eighteen year old girl. We have portrayed the boy as being the protector to start with in our film; by portraying him as kind and caring towards the girl, we acheived this by; the close up shots of both their hands coming together, where the boy helps the girl up, after she falls over by the river, however when the audience realise that the boy is the actually the villian and the girl is the victim; we show this to the audience by showing shots of the boy at the start of our film, standing behind the girl, looking very suspect, which creates ambiguity, however when the boy and girl meet the audience is led to believe that the boy is the protector, because of the dialouge and close up camera shots, which help the audience to feel more envolved in the story.

The boy; A 20 year old boy, therefore is slightly older than the girl, which in theory makes him more mature, he is also a student at university, which although the audience do not know this, if they did it would create connotations that he should be responsible, as an intelligent university student. He is walking by the river, when the girl is walking down the steps to go home and we see him lurking behind the steps looking at the girl, when she falls over, he then takes on the role as the `protector`, however slightly later in the film, we see him being aggressive and violent towards the girl, this is where the audiences view of him change, because of his actions. We have portrayed the boy as the villian and as being of a violent nature, by showing the chnage in his personality, which is very like that of `jeckyll and hyde`. His personality change is portrayed to the audience through; the use of close up camera shots that are used when the boy is being violent towards the girl and pushing her against the lampost, which creates connotations of violent and threatning behaviour that the boy is using towards the girl.

Overall, we have acheived the ambiguity that we wanted to acheive within our film, by using close up shots of the characters and their actions to create suspense and a sense of what will happen next.

By Louise McGee

Thriller film evaluation.

1).In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Within the planning stages of our thriller film, we looked at other thriller films for influence which we could apply to our own production. When we first started researching; we concentrated on Alfred Hitchcock’s, `Psycho` and within the film we concentrated on the close up shots of the characters to create suspense and ambiguity. We also looked at Carol Reed`s, `The Third Man` and concentrated on the film noire aspect to the film, that helped to create the very stylised mise-en-scene and the shadows of the characters on the wet cobbled streets and the tilt shots, which create a sense of disorientation. However when we had filmed a section of our film and reviewed the section, we then decided that our film related more to Andrea Arnold's, Red Road which is an independent British film. We made this decision because of the colour palette of Red road, being very soft and using a limited amount of colour, which creates a very independent and gritty feel

to the film. The lighting in our film, is very similar to Red Road, because of the natural lighting that has been created, because of our location next to a river, where there are aline of streetlamps, which all have a pink and red tint to them, therefore creating a natural and soft colour palette to our film, that similar of the colour palette in Red Road. We also related Red Road to our own film because of the locations of both the films; our film, Missing; is located in a busy city, therefore the location is urban and the scenes of the everyday life of the city, relates to Red Road, which is set in Glasgow. The theme of Red Road, relates to our own film also because Red Road follows, a security camera operator, who sees someone on the camera with whom she has perhaps previously been in a relationship, she then finds out where he lives and invites herself into his party he is hosting at his flat. Whilst she is at the man`s flat, the man tries to seduce her, this relates to our own film, because of the theme of stalking, however in our film the boy is stalking the girl, but they still both have connotations of vulnerability and they both create ambiguity. The costumes that were used are modern and fairly plain, which are the same in Red Road because it is a contemporary film, being produced in 2006 rather than the 1940s and 60s like Psycho and The Third Man. The camera angles that have been used in our thriller, have been created with influence from Psycho, because of the close up shots of the two characters; a male and female, just like in Psycho, which creates ambiguity and suspense, it also helps the audience to feel more involved, because they can see the characters expressions, thoughts and feelings.

2).How does your media product represent particular social groups? Our film represents women in society as vulnerable. The woman in our film is represented in this manner, because she is being taken advantage of by a man in the street after getting drunk on a night out. It also represents women as being out of control. It shows the vulnerability of women in society, because within the film she is put into a vulnerable position, after she get very drunk after a night out and on her way home a man starts stalking her. However her firstly acts like the protector, but this changes and he turns into the criminal and the women becomes the victim. The villain has been represented in the film as someone with a split personality as, when we first meet the man; we get the impression that the girl sees him as her protector and makes her less vulnerable, however i think the majority of the audience can see that he is the villain, from the beginning when he is lurking behind the girl, which instantly makes him look suspicious, especially as he is dressed almost entirely in black, which connotes evil. The gender of the villain and victim is very important within our film, as the villain is male and the victim is female, this is therefore very stereotypical and not challenging stereotypes in anyway way. The use of a female to play the victim is very representative of women as a whole in film noir as this is usually what we hear in the media rather than males being the victims. The choice of a male being the villain is equally stereotypical, because men are usually branded villains within modern day society and are the first point of blame when these type of incidents happen in society.

3).What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Our film would be distributed in a picturehouse cinema, for example cinema city, because cinema city shows independent films and specialist short films. Our film could be part of a British film season on the television channel Film 4, which has an alliance with warp productions, which produce independent films, short films and music videos. Our film would not be shown in a mainstream multi screen cinema, such as Vue or Odeon. Our film would not be shown in either of these two cinemas, because they both show mainstream, conventional films that will appeal to a wider audience, rather than a very specific audience such as the films that are shown in Cinema City. The references we made to Red Road in our film, would affect what cinemas it would be shown in, because it is an independent, British film, it would reach a smaller and more specific audience than a mainstream film, because of aspects such as; the location, mise-en-scene, lighting and camera angles.

4).Who would be the audience for your media product? The audience for my film would be; people who have an interest in the crime thriller genre. My audience would watch programmes such as; CSI, Waking the Dead and New Tricks. I think that the demographics of my audience would be; people from the age of around 16, any gender and generally people who enjoy watching programmes with suspense and mystery. People of either gender, would watch these types of programmes or films, as they do not appeal to one gender more than the other. The age of audience could be any age, as it does not hold any specific aspects that would appeal to a particular age group, however this type of genre would not be suitable for the very young, because of its content can be disturbing. I carried out some research on a group of around fifteen 16-17 year olds and they said that in a thriller film they prefer; a recognisable locations, instrumental only music, psychological thrillers, to be set in the present, to find out the location of the thriller within the first two minute of the film and the characters to be wearing clothing that is relevant to their personality. I have applied my research to the film by using a recognizable location; riverside in Norwich, which all of my respondents would recognise and so would the majority of its residents, within the thriller film we have also concentrated on using instrumental music, our thriller also comes under the sub genre of psychological, because of the theme of stalking, the costumes that the characters are dressed in are relevant to their personalities because; the female character is dressed in fashionable clothing which shows her youth and that she is outgoing, the male character is dressed relevant to his personality, because he is mainly dressed in black clothing, which represents his dark and evil personality, it also shows that he is mysterious and hard to read, because of his role in the film, changing from the protector to the villain.

5).How did you attract/address your audience? We attracted our audience, by taking on board the answers we gained from the auidence research questionaire that we individually carried out. We tried to make sure that the audiences preferences were included in our film, in order to attract our target audience. Within the mise-en-scene of the film we included the conventions of typical british independant films such as; Red Road. We asked people what they thought of our thriller film and they replied; they thought the music was powerful within the film, because of the way it reinforces the urgency and danger that is present in the film, people also commented on the location, the limited pastel lighting and the ambiguity that is present in our film.

6).What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Within the construction of our thriller we have had to use different technologies such as; a video camera, a digital camera, tripod, dv tape and editing software; Adobe Premiere Elements . Throughout the editing process, I have learnt about the transition of the shots, special effects that can be added, sequencing the shots and adding credits and titles to the shots. We used a digital camera, in order to take the location shots within the planning stages. We used a dv tape to record the film, this allows us the capture the video onto the video editing software and delete scenes and create a sequence, which makes sense in the order that it has been put into. The video camera and tripod allowed us to capture a vast variety of shot types and the tripod allowed us the move the camera to different heights in order to capture different things at different angles, the tripod also made sure that the image we were filming was steady, which creates a more professional look to the finished product. The use of a tripod, also enabled us to create establishing shots, which introduce the audience to the surroundings and get an understanding of the location. Within the construction of our thriller, it was we needed to re shoot the footage we took on our first shoot, because of the lack of lighting and the fact that we could not see that characters` faces, however we filmed these parts again and took onboard our mistakes from our first shoot and made sure that we had the correct lighting in order to see the characters` faces and concentrated on getting a greater amount of close ups of the characters faces, in order for the audience to understand what the characters are thinking and to create ambiguity. The use of the tripod, enabled us to shoot specific shots such as; the shot of the girl walking down the stairs, because it enabled us to keep the camera steady and to create a high angle shot to show the girls importance in the film, it also enabled us to get low angle shots of the girl when she fell over, which helps to show the audience the girls` vulnerability.

7).Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? The preliminary task helped us as a group, to identify each individuals strengths and weaknesses and establish what each production team member would do, in terms of their contribution towards the final production. We then made the decision that; we would all help in all aspects of the filming, however myself and Lexie would take a more directorial role and Sam would film for the majority of the time. We then decided that Lexie would complete the storyboard and locations shots. Sam would complete the casting, costumes and music. I would complete the treatment, shot list and shooting schedule. The preliminary task helped us to understand what the filming and production process entailed, it also helped us as a group to delegate roles. The shooting of the preliminary film, helped us to understand what impressions different camera angles would make and how we could represent the characters and their actions through using various shot types to show them in different lights.

How is digital cinema production affecting the british film industry?

Cinema production if affecting the british film industry in the way of technological convergence, the issue of technological convergence is that; as other technologies are discovered and being used more frequently, this then decreases the amount of people that will use the cinema as a place to view films, and will therefore use alternative ways such as; HD dvd players, blu-ray players, ipods, mobile phones, iphones and various other ways to watch films. The introduction of new technologies that allow people to watch films, affects the british film industry because of the new technolgies people will no longer want to go out and watch films at the cinema, when they could download it or watch it on sky+ or another televsion provider that allows you to watch films and record them, to playback t anytime of your choice.

I have studied vue and cinema city cinemas. They are both of importance, because both cinemas, have digital technology which enables live event such as concerts and sports matches to be streamed live to the cinema, you can also connect with other players around the world on games consoles and play them on the big cinema screen. Cinema city is important as although it targets a smaller audience than vue cinemas and only has three screens, it offers a wider vairety of films such as; foreign language, specialist, films that are relevent to the location of the cinema, they also offer a variety of specialised event at the cinema such as; kids club, slackers club etc, which widens the audience. The use of these event and the films they screen help to diversify content, therefore widening the audience and increasing profits. Cinema city is also part of the digital screen ntework, which enabled them to have more digital technology within their cinema. Vue is also important, because of its technology that allows 3D films to be screened at their cinema, although 3D technology has been around for a vast amount of years, it has only become popular in recent years because of proliferation of 3D and the amount of conventional mainstream films that are know being released, it also acts as a unique selling point.

New digital cinema production affects the films and other products that cinema city and vue produce and distribute, because digital technology enables the cinemas to screen more films, because it is cheaper to use digital technology as opposed to a 35mm films reel, which is extremly costly and difficult to use. Digital technology also enables the cinema to screen 3D films, which widens the audience and gives them a unique selling point. The use of digital technology, enable the cinemas to exhibit a wider vairety and more screenings of each films, therefore increasing the audience and increasing profits that the cinemas and the films make. It affects how the audience consumes the product because it offers the audience a wider variety of films to watch and the experience of 3D and watching live streaming concerts and sporting matches at the cinema.

The advantages of technological convergence is that it has helped media technology to evolve and offers a variety of ways in which to be able to watch the films such as; hd, blue-ray, downloading, film rental, online, youtube etc. This enable us to increase our individual consumption of films, because of the increasing ways in which we can access them, however this also has its disadvantages because it will decrease the conventional ways to watch a film and will decrease profits made by cinemas and film companies, therefore leading to a decrease in film making within the film industry. Piracy is has an effect on our consumption of films, because although it is exploiting the film company, directors and actors, however it increases people film consumption. Although it increases the amount of people who watch the film, it does not increase the profits that are made, because people are getting it on dvd or downloading the film illegally.

From my own personal viewpoint i believe that the digital cinema production is effecting the british film industry, in both good and bad ways. I think that the introduction of digital technology into cinemas, is a good point as it increases the amount of films and screenings you can show at a cinema, because they are cheap and easy to use as opposed to 35 mm film, which is expensive and was difficult to use. I also think that digital technology is better, because of the diversity and advancements that it has, which diversifies what the cinema has to offer to its audiences. Although, i think that the advancements in the media, could possibly decrease the amount of people who go to the cinema and also increase piracy, because of the variety of ways that you can play films.

Review of the televsion drama hollyoaks.

Review from www.imdb.co.uk

Hollyoak's is the brainchild of Phil Redmond. Redmond has provided the British public with some of the best cutting edge drama in the last 30 years. Beginning with Grange Hill in 1978 he established what has now become a legendary national treasure depicting the trials and tribulations of teenagers in their G.C.S.E and A-Levels. He then created Brookside, which changed the story lines of British Soaps forever with its continuous devotion to depict gritty, real suburban live. A programme set in Redmond's native Liverpool that revolved around a community of adults. Then in the 1990's came Hollyoaks. This was Redmond's project to depict live of the twenty something's in Chester.

On its release in 1995 it was considered typical Redmond's style. Its depiction of real live issues was sometimes relentlessly hard to watch but in other areas it was terrifically funny. It's cast were wonderful with the emphasis was on a naturalistic performance. The writing was crisp and fresh and very inventive. It dealt in a very mature fashion with the issues depicted and its sensitive approach meant that the soap was held very high in both the public and industries eyes. But as the old cast began to move on and replacements were drafting in it became clear that the previous hard work was being replaced by glamour and over the top story lines. The new actors were looks friendly and not very talented and the acting descended from well thought out characterizations to populist acting. This consists of over the top performances throughout the episode. It is quite frustrating to see this considering whatever went before them were genuine actors and actresses. This is not helped by the over the top story lines. Since January 2006 there has been a kidnapping, incarceration of a rapist who then escapes and commits mass murder. It is now Sept 2006 and the big action packed story lines are still coming. This is not helped by the cheesy camera direction that is employed in some of the scripts. One particular sequence involved a tomato ketchup mustard shoot out involving two girls. This was shot to the style of a John Woo. Some people say this is inspirational but to me its just rubbish and it quite clearly pisses upon what Phil Redmond set out to achieve in 1995. What was a good British Soap full of characters that you would genuinely care for have now been forsaken for a more Americanised product full of whining wannabes.

In it's time it has tread some ground that has met Phil Redmond's brief of Realism. The most powerful storyline to date was the male rape of Luke Morgan. This was the last time that Hollyoaks generated such a response from the public. Many of whom welcomed such a topic that had until then been swept under the carpet as a taboo issue. Since then the cheese has been processed weekly and distributed on a daily basis. In the film The Insider the Christopher Plummer character says in relation to media " You will only be remembered for what you did last night ". If this statement is true I really hope Phil Redmond has another ace up his sleeve because at the moment it looks like Hollyoaks current mediocrity will be remembered. 4 out of 10

Construction of gender within a extract from hollyoaks.

Write about the construction of gender in an extract from a British television drama.

I chose to write about Hollyoaks for this piece of writing, I watched and took notes from a five minute clip of Hollyoaks which was aired on channel 4 on the twelfth of March 2010.

In an extract from an episode of Hollyoaks, the mise-en-scene is vastly used to construct the representation of gender. Within the mise-en-scene, the costumes are very representative of gender as the majority of males are wearing dark clothing connoting; mystery and hidden identity, however the majority of the female characters are wearing brightly coloured clothing mainly of a pink colour tone this represent females as being; girly and represents them in a very stereotypical fashion, however there are three female characters who challenge this particular convention used within this episode, by wearing dark clothing which have connotations of; mystery and represents them as being different and an individual within the frame.

The three female characters who challenge this representation commonly used towards females within society are; Cindy; a women who is in her mid thirties and is being featured in the main storyline in Hollyoaks at present, which involves her on-screen daughter, Holly going missing after she feels that her mother, Cindy is neglecting her because of her current business convention; her vintage clothing shop in the Hollyoaks village. Cindy is wearing a black long coat with a fur trim, black trousers and black boots, this connotes sadness, death and funerals; because of the use of an entire costume using the black colour palette, which is associated with the dress code of a funeral. Although her costume holds these particular connotations, the fur trim around her black coat represent the glamorous side to Cindy, which is better known to the residents of Hollyoaks, than her current state of mind. Sasha, a nineteen year old girl, who runs her own club within the village of Hollyoaks, is wearing dark clothing, connoting mystery, however in a subtle way her outfit shows glamour and youth, which is reinforced by her large brightly coloured earrings. Her dark clothing represents the way in which she hides herself from her past involving drugs. Amy, a young unemployed mother of two, who is also 19 and is best friends with Sasha is also wearing dark clothing, however they are baggy and casual as opposed to the subtle glamour of Cindy and Sasha outfits. Amy’s laid back clothing, reinforces her current mood of feeling upset, depressed and lonely which stems from her lifestyle of being a young mum with two young children, being unemployed, dropping out of school with qualifications, her costume also represents her as being very different to a typical nineteen year old and wanting to merge into the background. All of Cindy, Sasha and Amy’s outfits represent their moods and feeling of the present and their hidden pasts.

The lighting is mainly ambient throughout the clip; however in some of the scenes that are inside, mainly within the pub they are non-ambient, however this is only a small degree. The use of ambient lighting makes it more realistic and less staged, which enables the audience to feel more involved and connected with the storyline and characters. Within the extract there are not many props that are used, although of course the characters own individual props which are part of their costume and objects within their homes, however newspaper are a very prominent prop within the extract, which shows the emphasis on the villages current story’s which are; the disappearance of Cindy’s daughter Holly and the looming court hearing of Josh, a 19 year old university student whose parents own the pub in the village. He was faced with a court hearing after his older brother Rees, spiked his non-alcoholic drink, which resulted in him crashing his car on the way home and one of his passengers ended up being hospitalized with serious injuries.

The camera shots within the extract from Hollyoaks consist of mainly close up shots; however there are also shot reverse shot, panning shot, two person shot, long shot and a group shot within the five minute clip of Hollyoaks. Within the opening shots of the extract, flash backs are used to give the audience an idea of what has been happening over the past episode and giving a very brief overview, in the form of a video with flashbacks and a well known piece of music as the soundtrack, it is used at the beginning of every hollyoaks episode and lasts around one minute, this then fades into the actual episode. Close up shots are used to show the characters emotions for example; a close up shot is used to show Cindy holding a paper looking at a mothers day advert within the newspaper; which shows her anxiety and worry towards her daughter, Holly’s disappearance. A close up shot is also used to show Steph, looking at a mother’s day card that her late husbands younger brother gave her, it shows her thoughts towards what is happening with Cindy and Holly, as Steph can relate to this as Tom, her late husbands brother is the same age and she has brought him up. The use of these close up shots, represents women as being caring, vulnerable and emotional. Close up shots are also used to show the various article on the newspaper; the story of Holly going missing and the story of Josh’s car crash, because of his brother, Rees spiking his drink during a night out, this then pans out into a shot of Rees face.

Although a vast number of close up shots are used, a shot reverse shot is used to show a conversation between Steph and her brother Darren in Mobbs, stephs smoothie business in the village. The use of this shot type, show the differences and diversity between the two characters and their different thoughts and feelings toward the subjects of their conversation. The use of panning shots within the extract are in order to help the audience to establish where they are, it also helps the audience to get an understanding of the surroundings, location and the demographics of the residents.

Within the episode, not a vast amount of visible editing is used, the editing that has taken place is fairly subtle, however in the title sequence, the word hollyoaks appear on the screen and the O`s, zoom out to overlap with one another and then has a fast cut to the episode. Within the title both O`s, have the male and female symbols on them, showing that men and women are equal and when both the O`s come together to reveal the frame it represents unity. The credits are shown over the shots at the beginning of the episode; however this only states the crew members and the cast credits are at the end of the episode. The cuts between each frame are fast, which creates a very fast paced storyline and more evolvement for the audience. The soundtrack that is put over the shots at the beginning of the episode is always a well known music soundtrack, which is therefore non-diegetic.

The fact that Hollyoaks is a soap opera, there is a vast amount of diegetic sounds that are heard throughout the episode, however a non diegetic soundtrack is played during the first minute of the episode, this fades out as the episode starts. Within this particular extract the diegetic sounds were; crying, opening of a newspaper, dialogue, people walking, birds, movement of people and things, air horn, ringing of a phone, rustling of paper especially newspapers within this episode. Diegetic sound is used to make the episode seem more realistic and give the audience a focus and it helps them to relate the storyline to their daily lives, because there is not a constant soundtrack over the dialogue and shots.

Costumes

Within the planning of our thriller, we needed to consider the clothing carefully of what our characters would wear, as the costumes create different ways in which the character is perceived.

We chose for the girl to wear; a short flowery skirt, a beige/white vest top, a beige cropped cardigan and white canvas shoes. We gave the girl the costume of a short flowery skirt, because the flowery pattern shows the girl is feminine and innocent, however by the skirt being short this shows a different side to her, the whole colour palette of her costume consists of pastel colours, this shows that she is girly and it does not represent a dark or bad side to the girl, therefore reinterpreting the fact that the girl is incredibly vulnerable within the story. The costume, also represents the girl a fashion concious and shows her youth, which re-enforces her occupation as a second year sixth form student.

We chose for the boy to wear; a black jacket, dark jeans and white trainers. We gave the boy the costume of a black jacket, because this represents the boy as being a dark and evil character to the audience. The dark jeans reinforces the boys characteristics of being dark and evil that are protrayed within the film, however the use of the light coloured trainers challenges these characteristics, as white is usually a colour that represents innocence, however in this case it does ont, they create mystery because they are of a different colour palette to the rest of his costume. Although the trainers are white and in this case do not represent innocence, they are showing the audience that there is perhaps a nice side to the boy, that we as an audience do not see. The costume, is also very casual and a very ordinary outfit, which will make the audience believe that he is just an ordinary boy, when he first appears within the mise-en-scene. The boys costume, also re-enforces the fact that he is a university student, because of his smart, but casual dress code and the fact that his costume consisits of mainly all black clothing, creates mystery and ambiguity, therefore leaving the audience to decide the personality of the boy.

This is the girls costume;

This is the boys costume;

By Louise McGee

Digital screen network

1). What is the digital screen network?

It is a £12 million investment, a national lottery investment which equips 240 screens in 210 cinemas across the uk with digital projection technology which gives the audiences a greater choice of film.

2). How can it help independent producers and exhibitors like picture house?

It will help independent producers and exhibitors like picture house because it enables them to distribute a vaster amount of films across their screens, which will therefore increase their audience numbers. It also increases the amount of times that one film is shown and enables them to show a greater selection of films which appeals to a wide variety of people and specialized films that are not generic hollywood films.

3). What will it mean for audiences?

It will mean that audiences get the chance to watch a wider variety of films, such as critically acclaimed films. It also means that film distribution can be increased as it is cheaper to reproduce the films as they are digital as opposed to 35 mm film, which is very expensive to reproduce.

4). How does your local area benefit?

My local area benefits from this as two out of the three cinemas in the city have one digital screen each. One of the cinemas is independent and one is mainstream. This benefits my local area, because it enables local people to be able to watch specialized films, which are of interest to the local people it also will increase the number of people who use those particular cinemas, because films are shown more often, therefore helping the entertainment industry and the local economy.

5). How does it impact on your film consumption?

The use of digital screen technology impacts my individual film consumption, as it offers a wider variety of times for me to watch the film, it also allows me to be able to see independent films that i may not have otherwise been able to watch.

6). What will this technology also provide to cinemas?

The technology will increase the amount of people who use the cinema, therefore increasing its profits, it will also bring the cinema a wider audience base and have a more varied audience.

7). What can you suggest this might mean for other technologies?

This may mean that other technologies are not used as often as they had been previously before digital screening came around, therefore people may not use the non-digital screening cinemas anymore, because of the lack of films and amount of times each individual film is screened.

Other technologies will benefit from the use of digital because; of the way in which we can watch films because of digital technology such as; HD dvd players, 3D technology, Blu-ray dvds and dvd players. You can also download films off websites such as itunes and you can directly put them on to your computer, ipod or iphone, you can also watch films televsion on your mobile phone because of the internet and iplayers and on-demand services from televsion broadcasters.

Film distribution in norwich

I collected cinema listings for the weekend of the 13th and 14th of march at both; vue and cinema city and answered these questions about the listings.



1). How many films in total are being exhibited?



Cinema city; 5

Vue; 13



2).Select a range of three different films for each cinema. How many times is each film screened? What does this mean for audiences?



Cinema city

The girl with the dragon tattoo - 6

Fantastic Mr fox - 2

The floods of east anglia 1912-1953 - 1

The amount of times that each film is screened affects the audience, because the films are only on at limited times this may affect the amount of people that watch the films as they may not be convinent for everyone, however at a mainstream cinema, films are screened many more times than at an independant cinema which creates more felxability for the audience.


Vue

Alice in wonderland 3D - 7

Green zone - 6

Hachi;A dogs tale - 7

This affects the amount of people that watch the films, as they are on many times, people are more likely to use a mainstream cinema such as vue rather than an independant cinema like cinema city, because of the large variety of times that films are shown.



3).Identify the total number of films in relation to the total number of screenings.



Cinema city

On the weekend there are five films that are being shown and sixteen screenings.



Vue

On the weekend there are thirteen films that are being shown and eighty-nine screenings.

4).Identify the % of hollywood films vs british films for each cinema that weekend.



Cinema city

The girl with the dragon tattoo - swedish

Fantastic mr fox - american

Floods of east anglia 1912-1953 - british

Shutter island - American

The 39 steps (re-release) - American



Vue

Alice in wonderland - American

Alice in wonderland 3D - American

Avatar 2D - American

Green zone -British

Hachi;a dogs tale - American

Leap year - American

Percy jackson and the lightening theif - American

Shutter island -American

St trinians 2 - British

The crazies - American

The lovely bones - American

The princess and the frog - American

5).What conclusions can you draw about how different audiences are catered for in your local area?

From the research, i have learnt that different audiences are catered for in norwich by the wide range of films that are being shown across both of the cinemas; mainstream and independant. The vue cinema, a mainstream cinema caters mainly for people who want to see hollywood mainstream films, however they do show some british films, however they are all mainstream and very well known and heavily advertised films. I have also learnt that independant cinemas cater for a variety of different people however the screening are very limited which may not suit all people, however they cater for children, the elderly, people who are interested in specialised documentary films and foreign language films.