Weekly news - 22/11/2017
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/20/russell-simmons-accused-of-sexual-assault-alongside-brett-ratner 

Russell Simmons accused of sexual assault alongside Brett Ratner 

Model, Keri Claussen Khalighi stated in 1991, aged 17 she was invited round to Russell Simmons, the hip-hop mogul who co-founded Def Jam Recordings. She stated that Simmons had tore off her clothes and attempted to force her to have sex, which she said she fought wildly. She also stated “I looked over at Brett and said, ‘Help me,’ and I’ll never forget the look on his face. In that moment, the realisation fell on me that they were in it together.” 
Due to the fact she was 17 at the time she is classified as a child, where 1 in 20 children are sexually abused and 1 of 3 are perused by an adult. This makes Russell Simmons an addition to this number. 
When looking at Brett Ratner, there is a history of sexual assault, where women such as Olivia Munn, Natasha Henstridge, Jamie Ray Newman,  and Katharine Towne were victims. Three of these womens professions are or were modelling. 

Weekly news

Weekly news - 15/11/2017

BBC accused of sexing up Shakespeare after adding sex scenes to new £6m epic

This statement has been made after the BBC introduced sex scenes within the show Shakespeare. However the director Dominic Cook stated "For me it was really important that you saw this union between these two people – a kind of metaphor for their corruption."

Benedict Cumberbatch, playing the villain in Shakespeare was recently voted most popular BBC character, which in turn would have boosted the views of this programme, therefore receiving views from a diverse audience. 

He has also been voted the sexiest movie star in the world according to the mail online, which may have influenced this sex scene. 

Through research sex scenes within media have increased from 6% to 14% since 1999, showing the popularity of it. Therefore in my opinion Dominic Cook followed this trend to gain popularity in this programme, however it appeared to backfire. 

The Production Cycle

Pre-Production - Planning, scripting, storyboarding, casting, costume, production design & budget
Pre production explains the process of planning before the camera rolls. This is commonly the most time consuming part of the cycle. I also includes the process of choosing the cast and the location of where the film will be shot.

Production - The actual shooting/recording
Production starts when the footage is recorded.

Post Production - Everything between production and creating the final master copy
Commonly within the post production, the editing is completed such as CGI/SFX.

Sales & Marketing
TV / Radio
Billboards
Online
Festival

Distribution
20th Century Fox
Universal
Disney
WB
Sony
MGM

Exhibition
Audience consumption
Amazon
Netflix
Cinema
DVD
TV
Airline

Staff
Producer
Writer
Director
Cinematographer
Production Designer

Explore the representation of women in music videos focusing on , Robin Thicke Blurred Lines and

Intro

Evolution of perception of women in music videos

Socialization, the process of teaching or learning how to be a member of a group sets the standards, which are seen as ‘acceptable’ within what we call ‘gender roles’. This process is commonly seen within music videos, which sets the standards that females should promote being sexualised to seem attractive to the opposite sex. The use of promotion aids the music video industry as they are used as publicizing devices.

Historically women first appeared in music videos in the 1930s, but didn’t gain popularity until the 1950s, where the sexualisation of women became more apparent. A sample of sixty-two videos from 1984 showed, that 60% included "some portrayal of sexual feelings or impulses"[1].

Stereotypes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nudity_in_music_videos

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/haveyoursay/2010/08/has_modern_music_become_too_se.html

Robin Thicke – Blurred Lines

Instantly seen within Robin Thicke’s music video blurred lines is a divide between the two sexes shown through costume as the men are seen to be wearing black and the women are dressed in White. Establishing this rift at the beginning allows the idea that women may be portrayed as inferior later on within the video. Also the use of the colour White often symbolises purity/innocence which is a juxtaposition of their derogatory, sexualised look. The theme of purity and innocence is hinted numerous times throughout the video, one being a shot of a woman holding a lamb, being the representation of innocence as the lamb is a metaphor of the girl herself who is stood next to Pharell whom is dressed as farmer. This frame as a whole shows how Pharell is in control and is going to tend for her.

The lamb also links to one of the main themes depicted within the video of

women being animals. This is accentuated by one of the lines sung “OK now he was close, tried to domesticate you”, where the use of the word domesticate refers to women, which clearly shows the power the men have over them as this is word commonly used to describe the education of animals. The strong link seen between women and animals emphasizes the point they are sexual objects.

One scene within the video shows a woman playing with a red car toy in childlike manner. This furthermore demeans the women as they are seen as young and immature and need someone to discipline them. This midshot shows the woman sexually bent down on the ground with the car rolling down her body. This is key within the video as is connotes masculinity as these are two possessions most important to men and they are seen to be getting along which puts men in their element. Also the use of red of the car implies love and passion which replicates the feelings men have to their possessions.

Girl lighting cigarette, close up, shows masculinity,

Masculinity – men all dressed in suits, positioned centre of shot, shows sense of power

Video editing - #THICKE, bold writing connotes strength and masculinity (representation of main character Robin Thicke), word thicke has sexual characteristics of the male reproductive organ

Lighting – bright lighting to suggest things go right when men are around, sign of intelligence

Lyrics – women referred to as bitches, links to animal connotations

Camera movements – close ups of areas on the female body, objectified

Robin Thicke pulls girl pony tail, as if an object, little respect

Contrary to this Robin Thicke argues in an interview with GQ in 2013 that when creating blurred lines they wanted “to do everything that was taboo”.

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexuality_in_music_videos#History

Examples of what is included in Thriller:

Themes+settings:                                                             Characters:
- Urban                                                                              - Protagonist vs. Antagonist
- Modern                                                                           - Hero vs Villain
- Crime                                                                              - Psychics
- Deaths                                                                             - False hero
- Missing people                                                                - Victims
- Greed                                                                              - Love/sex interest                                                                      
- Paranoia                                                                          - Comic relief

Narrative:                                                                        Emotions for audience
- Murder                                                                            - Suspense
- Protagonist threatened/ captured                                     - Tension
- Assault                                                                            - Scared
- Chase scenes                                                                   - Fear
- Gun fights                                                                       - Shock
- Mind games                                                                    - Excitement
- Twists
- Plot twists

Technical codes: 
- camera angles
- Movement
- Editing (cuts&fades)
- Mis-en-scene
- Sound
- Colour/lighting

Theories

Vladimir Propp 

Character roles: 
The hero - seeks something
The villain - opposes the hero 
The donor - helps the hero 
The dispatcher - sends the hero on his way 
The false hero - falsely assuming the role of hero 
The helper - gives support to the hero 
The princess - the reward for the hero, but also needs protection from the villain 
Her father 

Example of Propp:

Shrek 
The hero - Shrek as he saves Princess Fiona and wins her love
The villain - Lord Farquaad as he wants Fiona to himself 
The donor -  The donor is not a particular person but a magical dragon who helps stops the wedding of Lord Farquaad and Fiona when Shrek realises he loves her, and finds out that she is an ogre too.
The dispatcher - Lord Farquaad is the Dispatcher as he is the one who sends Shrek to go and rescue Princess Fiona.
The false hero - The False hero is Lord Farquaad because he earned the princess even though he had to get Shrek to complete the mission to save her from the castle,  however Shrek and Fiona end up in love.
The helper - Donkey is the helper in Shrek as he provides Shrek someone to talk to as well as moral support throughout the film. 
The princess - Fiona 
Her father - king Harold 

Claude Levi-Strauss 
Binary oppositions 
              - symbolic oppositions 
e.g. Hero vs. Villain 

Tzvetan Todorov 
Simple narrative structure. 
Start with equilibrium - in which life is normal then something happens to disrupts that then there is a new equilibrium 

Roland Barthes

codes - denotation and connotation to analyse images 
Action - a narrative device by which a resolution is produced through action e.g. shoot out 
Enigma - a narrative device that teases the audience by presenting a puzzle or riddle to be solves. Works to delay the story's ending pleasurably. 
Symbolic - (connotation) - secret hidden meaning 
Semic - (denotation) - what is literally happening
Cultural - a narrative device  which the audience can recognise as being part of a culture e.g. a 'made man' in a gangster film is part of the mafia culture. 

Trailer 2 analysis

Trailer 2

The purge:

At the beginning of this trailer we see a sunset, which usually implies happiness and new beginnings, which is then followed by a family holding hands with calming music in the background, so we see no connotations of it being a thriller making it misleading, which could be a theme within the film. Again the trailer has fading transitions, which adds to the calming affect with the writing “unemployment at 1%”, which could be a suggestion about the target audience, being an older age group.  

We then see a zoom in of a woman’s face who is smiling, which emphasises the happiness of the scene followed by two teenagers kissing with the caption “crime is at an all time low”. This could also be a hint about who the target audience is; also teenagers are often associated with crime which could be a slight stereotype within the trailer.

After we get a glimpse at why society is doing so well as it says “But once a year”. This also makes the viewer want to carry on watching as it leaves questions in their head.

Once we start to see the night time approach the scenes begin to speed up, making us the audience forget about the happy scenes we have just witnessed. We also see what is going on through an unusual way of viewing things, which is through a CCTV camera; this suggests crime is big part of the film. This also shows a technical change as the lighting has changed to low key lighting.

We also see props within these scenes, one being the sharpening of a machete, which implicates death. Therefore what we saw at the beginning was almost a cover up.

Half way through the trailer it then tells us what the story line is about by saying “all crime is legal”. Although it gives away part of the storyline we are still not certain to what happens in the film.

We see a massive contrast from the beginning of the trailer compared to end due to change of music as it starts of calm and becomes rapid and unsettling. We also see change due to the emotions of the characters shown, as the main protagonist (the woman) is seen smiling and with her friends to begin with but is shortly seen scared and screaming. This shows how the relationships between the protagonists begin to change and so do their facial expressions.

Usually within thrillers if you have wealth you are powerful, but this film contrasts to this as although the family we are shown lives in a big house and has good security they at just at as much risk as any other people therefore making them vulnerable.

Nearer the end we witness more violence as the protagonists and antagonists are introduced. During this scene we see a mixture of high and low key lighting due to the battle between the two.

The antagonists are introduced wearing masks and the men are wearing black and the women white this shows how the purge is bad but also removes evil from the town.