Master and Commander

1. Explain two ways the characters and/or events in the extract fit the action adventure genre. [10]

The first shot is of the main character, Captain Jack Aubrey. All the crew look to him for the order; showing that he is the leader. As he refuses to surrender his ship, resulting in a battle, he appears brave and daring to the audience. He then wins, thanks to his crew, making him a hero for making the call.

The French ship threatens Captain Aubrey which results in a short battle. Due to the weapons; gun barrels there are a lot of explosions and everything is covered in smoke and is a haze. The French ship is clearly defeated as the audience hear screams and see some people fall into the water as their main sail falls into the sea, confirming their defeat.

2. Explain how each of the following is used to create effects that fit the action adventure genre:
soundtrack
camerawork
editing
mise-en-scène. [20]

at the start of this clip there is non-diegetic sound, in the form of music, to add dramatic tension for the upcoming battle. music can be used to add emotions of characters, moods and atmosphere to the scene. diegetic sound is always used as the audience can see the characters talking on screen and can hear the cannons shots. as there is a lot of shouting when the captain rwefuses to surrender to the ship the crew begin shouting to prepare for battle, the constant shouting continues throughout the rest of the scene, this is called sound bridge.

Hurt Locker

Q 1. Explain two ways the characters and/ or events fit the action adventure genre.

Use examples from the extract. [10 marks]

There is a time pressure situation, which is obvious due to the constant shouting and everyone talking over each other. The audience can clearly tell from the tone of the actors’ voices that they're frightened and nervous. This causes a tension filled scene. There is a translation barrier which can also add more tension because the man who has a bomb strapped to him is terrified. The audience can connect as they know that how the man is reacting to the situation is how they would.

There is a build up to when the bomb actually explodes. The film is based on war which fits the action genre. It is easy to tell it is war because the audience would be familiar with the army uniform used. As the situation develops the tension builds as the main character starts to put on the bomb diffusing suit. The audience can start to tell that it won’t end well. The scene continues to develop with heavy gear like bolt cutters being used. Then the bomb explodes which is a large part to action, there is a loud bang and the audience sees the impact of the explosion, then the scene ends with complete silence.

Q2. Explain how each of the following is used to create effects:

soundtrack

editing

mise en scene

camerawork

Use examples from the extract. [30 marks]

In the scene there is diegetic sound from the main character as it then focuses on him and makes him a larger presence than the rest so the audience know he is important. All characters have diegetic sound so that we can see their reactions to the situation. There is also a lot of non-diegetic sound as there is a lot of shouting from multiple characters at the same time. due to the overall view looking like a documentary or a point of view from others there is a sound bridge as the group of army soldiers are nowhere near the man with the bomb. The film is very realistic so there is synchronous sound so there are no unexpected sounds.

Editing is key to this scene as there is a lot going on so it is fast paced as it reflects the thoughts of the characters who are frightened and under time pressure. As the film feels quite natural the editing is the typical continuity style so uses cut editing. The soldiers talk to one another so there is a shot reverse shot for some conversations so the audience know who is talking. Action films use cross-cutting, especially to build suspense, which the scene needs.  At the start of the scene a jump cut is used to show the whole scene of the man walking towards them, and sets the scene.

The idea of the film is army based so the characters are all in army uniform; it is sand coloured and pale greens as it blends with the background as it should in the army as they don’t want to appear a target. The costumes are likely to be real uniforms for an authentic feel to the film. To help give the view of a realistic life of one solider, the main character William James, there is also actual army gear like the trucks that carry multiple soldiers to destinations, the disusing suit the main character puts on. the realistic situation of an army officer in Baghdad there is a bomb threat, so the man has a bomb vest around him that James has to cut through, it might connect to the title as the vest is covered in locks that he has to break. The lighting in this scene is very natural as it was likely shot in in the Middle East to get an authentic setting for the film. So there are shadows and the light causes lens flare, which is very common in films as it makes them appear more realistic helping with the continuity as they don’t have to create it.

As the film feels almost like a documentary almost all of the shots are hand-held as it makes the audience feel involved in the action. tracking and Ariel of James is used whilst he walks toward the man with a bomb strapped to him so that the audience can see the high pressure situation and feel the comfort of being an onlooker from a distance rather than walking with him. Ariel is used again probably on a crane as an establishing shot at the start as the film tracks days of being at different camps or areas so zooms out so that the audience can see a full view of the scene. In all conversations, the soldiers talking and James trying to save the man, there is a use of shallow focus so that the characters talking are clear and the main focus to the audience. canted angles are used to show the uneasiness of the situation and also help show the full view of people at different heights e.g. James standing telling the man, on his knees, to put his hands behind his head. dolly zoom is used a lot to zoom in a characters faces to show their reactions to this situation as the translator and James sympathise for the man and the officer in charge tries to tell James to give up as he is 'a dead man' due to the time pressure.

Q 3. Discuss the ways in which people are represented in the extract.

Refer to stereotypes in your answer.
Use examples from the extract. [20 marks] 

The whole film is a stereotype as to what the audience think goes on in Iraq, For example the clip has a bomb threat by a suicide bomber. The film focuses on James falling into multiple booby traps made by the insurgents. Audiences would prefer to see this as it fits with their expectetions, although it is actual things that happen the film has more than what would be normal for the average soldier. the excessive amount of situations could ten make him seem even more of a hero as he goes above and beyond what is expected.   

Edge Of Tomorrow

Q 1. Explain two ways the characters and/ or events fit the action adventure genre.

Use examples from the extract. [10 marks]

The film fits the conventions of action adventure by a battle of good and evil. It focuses in on the protagonist, William cage, so that the audience can easily tell he is the good character. The antagonists are aliens whom the protagonist fights off; using guns which dramatically make them explode. This is a convention by using large weapons e.g. the mental armed suit and the dramatic fall back when hit, everything is exaggerated.

Another way it fits the typical conventions of the action adventure genre is it relies on the action sequences to build the action aspect as these have a variety of camera shots e.g. close up and there’s loud sound effects to emphasise guns, death and crashing of the ships.

Q2. Explain how each of the following is used to create effects:
soundtrack
editing
mise en scene
camerawork
Use examples from the extract. [30 marks]

In the clip we looked at there is an establishing shot of hundreds of ships travelling to the battlefield. this shot creates the setting so that the audience can follow the story-line, it introduces that there will now be a lot of action. Dolly zoom is then used for the audience to see the main protagonist's, William Cage, facial reaction to his current situation. It passes the extras on the ship to focus in on Cage's face and shows the expression on it. The audience and Cage are the only ones who know the ship is about to explode so the tension starts to build and the intense view of his face helps the audience connect.  afterward there is a brief glimpse at Cage's futuristic controls for his armor, this is a point of view shot as it is pointing downward to what his is looking at. The audience can connect with Cage from that. Due to all the action that now occurs to simulate the ground shaking from explosions and crashing ships the camera is now hand held so shakes, this creates a more realistic view of what the audience would actually go through is they were in this situation. It makes the film seem more realistic and intensifies the battle as they can feel/see the reaction of an explosion. Tracking and medium shots are used so that the audience are still focused on the protagonist but can also see the action in the background, it helps to let the audience view it all.

Editing in action sequences is key as it has to be fast paced so that the audience are always interested and can stay stimulated. There is a shift with continuity and non-continuity as when Cage wakes up he brings the story back to the start using a jump cut. he does develop and move it on still as each time he knows what to do so there is still continuity. Continuity brings the story forward, we follow them into battle and  explore it with Cage. Each time he dies we get to learn what went wrong and how he will change it. CGI is a large part of this film as it is action adventure and sci-fi which means its important. The antagonist is the aliens, which the audience are believed to think are the the enemy.

Q 3. Discuss the ways in which people are represented in the extract.

Refer to stereotypes in your answer.
Use examples from the extract. [20 marks]

The main character, William cage, develops from being terrified and unsure of what is happening to slowly saving multiple lives and helping to save the whole world. This is because of the alien blood, he goes back to the start and can learn about what went wrong and how to prevent it. Eventually he meets the female character, Rita, who was seen as propaganda on the side of a bus when Cage woke up. This shows that the war is equal in how it treats both genders and would appeal to females. We then meet her multiple times as Cage saves her life. Women in action adventure films can vary in their stereotype, as in war films they appear strong and equal but they are usually a love interest too. So despite their independent nature they end up relying on the male protagonist.

Cage also develops because he builds a relationship with the roommates we meets, so rather than the original joke on the ship of there being a ‘dead man’ in his suit everyone likes him as he protected their card game. He earned their friendship.

The male protagonist may have been scared at first but then all a sudden when he panics he manages to find a button which blows up the alien just in time, this then causes his to relive, but after that he becomes an action packed man that saves lives, kills multiple aliens, finds the girls and possibly save the world.

4. (a) Compare how and why two programmes were scheduled on different channels.

I have looked at two programs; Bad education on BBC 3 and Friday Night Dinner on Channel 4. They are both comedy sitcoms so follow a lot of similar conventions, but have different audiences due to the type of comedy. For example Bad Education has typically more inappropriate behaviour that would appeal to their audience of young teens, 15-20.

BBC 3 in general has a target audience of young adults, 15-25 so a program like Bad Education would fit with their ideas. The show is set in a school with the characters being a class and teachers, the students are year 11 so would naturally appeal to people of similar age. In comedy it is important to have something the audience can relate to, in this case school. The creator Jack Whitehall is a young comedian that has been involved in many sitcoms that attract younger audiences. He plays the main character, Alfie Wickers; Alfie is the unconventional teacher which is the main joke of the show. Bad education is on after the watershed at 10pm because of the inappropriate behaviour and humour. This is another drag for the audience as this type of comedy appeals to the audience. Bad Education shows an over exaggerated view of a typical British school, it explores the types of people are at school and will make a joke of everyone.

All of the bbc is payed for in taxes so doesn’t have breaks or advertisements for anything other than shows on the bbc. Sitcoms are usually 30 minutes long. 

Audience Pleasures (4b) Friday Night dinner

Friday night dinner
       

This sitcom has a narrative in which the repetitive features are: setting the scene with the sons outside the house, they go into have dinner with their family, are interrupted by the weird neighbour and then leave. There will be a different story in the middle which the family have to cope with; the episode we watched was they were selling a sofa bed to a man. They then got it stuck on the stairs, the man was told his father died (who he was buying it for), then we watched how they awkwardly coped with it and the consequences of the sons immature behaviour. The show is always set in an around the house.

It is harder to put the characters into the 8 comedy characters as there are only 5 main characters and they don’t show the traits as much as the characters in bad education.

1.The Logical Smart One – responsible, stable: Jackie, meets the stereotypical mother role

2.The Lovable Loser – sarcastic, optimistic, needy, impulsive: Adam and Jonny the sons show the same traits throughtout even if they aren’t prominate

3.The Neurotic – awkward, nervous, controlling, worried: Jackie showed this trait the most in the episode we watched as the sofa bed starts ripping the wallpaper she yells at them to stop. She takes care of the family and is friendly and kind to the weird character Jim because she doesn’t want to hurt his feelings.

4.The Dumb One – friendly, naïve, gullible, no ulterior motive: Martin, the dad

5.The Bully – mean, insensitive, insecure, doesn’t apologize: Adam and Jonny pick on  each other in the typical sibling way so slightly meet this as they bully one another.

6.The Womanizer/Manizer (AKA “Slutty Spice”) – charming, seductive, horny, superficial: n/a

7.The Materialistic One – judgmental, entitled, spoiled: Adam and Jonny are ungrateful for a lot of things, I put them as this as they are too childish to even realise.

8.In Their Own Universe (AKA “Spacy Spice”) – odd, eccentric, uses illogical logic: Jim, the neighbour

This show has an audience demographic in B and C1 , there is a larger array in the age of the characters because the parents and neighbour will be known well by those 28-40 which then attracts them to the program. There isn’t the immature childlike humour that we see in bad education although we do see that in the sons. This then makes the viewer feel superior to the sons as the still act like children. Females watching will relate with the mother, Jackie, as she is the most sensible and in charge of the males of the family. The husband, Martin, is simple so also has jokes made from him as he can act like a caveman e.g. he was eating food from the bin, this will appear funny to females.

The target audience is both male and female but would initially attract males because of the characters. Jewish people would be the focus of their audience as it is based around a Jewish tradition of coming together for a meal with family on a Friday night. For those who are middle aged they're more likely to know Tasmin Greig from a variety of comedy sitcoms like greenwing.  Simon Bird is well known for being in the inbetweeners, a comedy about a group of boys in college,  which has a younger target audience to this program so younger viewers would likely watch it as he’s very recognisable. Tom Rosenthal isn’t as well-known as he was on a program for a younger audience so; it wasn’t as popular as the inbetweeners. Paul Ritter would be well known with the audience as he is of a similar age and has been in a lot of popular shows and films. Mark Heap is similar to Paul as he has also been in popular TV shows and films, and is of a similar age to the audience.  Due to the amount of well-known male actors in the program it suggests an audience of 25 year olds to middle aged men.

Friday night dinner is on channel 4, they have a lot of comedy shows for all ages, but it is typically for an older audience of 30-45. The show has two producers; Popper Pictures and Big Talk Productions. Channel 4 is a terrestrial program meaning it is on all TV’s. Channel 4 is commercial;  it makes it money from advertising so there are breaks every 10- 15 minutes. The program is on after the watershed at 9 pm because of the use of language and inappropriate references, for example the joke the sons have calling each other ‘pissface’.

Audience Pleasures (4b) Bad Education

4. (b) Discuss in detail how one programme (Bad Education) offers audience pleasures. Give examples from the programme. [15 marks]

Bad Education

A narrative pleasure is the plot that is repetitive but has a different middle, which is typically Alfie messing up somehow, and finishing with him not losing his job. The excitement and build up to the catastrophe that Alfie creates brings an audience. ‘Bad Education’ is set in the same place usually, some times there is a trip but the scene stay the same of familiar throughout, the school, and has the same characters so the audience develops a relationship with them and watches them develop.  In the episode we watched Alfie began his bad day by having built up bad things throughout, which is the structure of his sitcom, he starts the day with a hangover and then is told he needs to mark his students mock exams or else they will fail. So all of a sudden he has the job of marking a lot of exams before that parents evening that night. Alfie struggles with it so he decides to let the students mark them which shows he is unprofessional. The deputy head who the audience are supposed to hate then reveals that she knows he got them to mark the tests so then all the students fail. This is another consequence of his bad choices which adds to his rising of bad choices in the lead  up to the main event. Throughout Alfie tries to flirt with another teacher who has been fundraising for a disease, Alfie pretends to know it then says a child in one of his classes, who is now presumed a push over, mother has the disease and over exaggerates her symptoms e.g. her fingers fell off.

The main character is Alfie wickers who is the teacher of a class of teens presumed to be 16. The class meets the usual stereotypes of a sitcom:

 1.The Logical Smart One – responsible, stable: This is predominantly  the Asian girl, Jing , which meets the stereotype of comedy and the media in  general.

2.The Lovable Loser – sarcastic, optimistic, needy, impulsive: Both Alfie and Joe show this trait as they have bad things happen to one another, Joe’s is usually because of Alfie

3.The Neurotic – awkward, nervous, controlling, worried: Joe, fits mostly at of them all

4.The Dumb One – friendly, naïve, gullible, no ulterior motive: Joe also fits this character as he is brought into trouble by Alfie

5.The Bitch/Bastard – mean, insensitive, insecure, doesn’t apologize: Mitchell and Remdog are the unliked ones of the sitcom as they bully people by taking the mick out of them

6.The Womanizer/Manizer (AKA “Slutty Spice”) – charming, seductive, horny, superficial: Chantelle fits this character as she tries to flirt with Alfie throughout telling him things like he’ll need a rebound after being embarrassed in front of Mrs Gulliver

7.The Materialistic One – judgmental, entitled, spoiled: Stephan is this character and also fits the stereotypical gay character

8.In Their Own Universe (AKA “Spacy Spice”) – odd, eccentric, uses illogical logic: The head teacher Fraser fits this character as he acts very childish and is an unconventional head teacher. In the episode we watched Fraser and Alfie were competing for Mrs Gulliver’s attention.

The fact that the teacher, Alfie, and head teacher, Fraser, are called and known by their first name shows that they are immature where as Mrs Gulliver is more professional and due to her calm and passionate nature throughout it reflects why she isn’t called by her first name. Mrs Gulliver is taken seriously.

Stereotypes are important in comedy as it can make the audience feel superior for example the ‘chav’ Mitchell is dumb and Alfie often take the mick out of his family’s situation. As Alfie is more snobby not only does it make him feel superior is does too for the audience. The smart one is usually of Asian ethnicity and outwits the other cast members, Jing will do this by saying something in Chinese under her breath but then Alfie will counter act it with a completely different topic not knowing what has been said. Chantelle also meets the ‘slut’ stereotype and often makes euphemism and ‘offers herself’ to Alfie she wears tight clothes and short skirts. In the episode we watched it carried on her stereotype as we meet her mother who is also very forward. This offers the audience gratification because of humorous it is to see certain characters being ridiculed. Plus, in some sense it establishes a relationship characters like Alfie and the audience due to the audience being able to relate with the characters with them agreeing with.

Research for scheduling question (4a)

Bad Education    

BBC commissioned Bad Education for the channel BBC 3,  Tiger aspect produced the series.
The audience of the program is typically 15-19 year olds who are in school so find the program relatable. It appeals to both males and females, as they're both represented and equally stereotyped. the creator of the series is a comedian called Jack Whitehall who is very popular in young adults and teens as he has been parts of 'coming of age' sitcoms e.g. fresh meat which is about university students, therefore would appeal to that age group. Jack tends to meet the immature jokes which are popular for the target audience so are in constant use throughout his sitcoms.
This program is shown after the watershed at 9pm, due to the sexual references and str=g language which also attracts the age range of 15-19 as it can be seen as a form of rebellion listening to the rude language, which is common for the age range. Especially as the program was on Tuesday nights.   BBC 3 broadcast the channel as this is viewed as the younger generations channel. BBC is a public service broadcaster, a terrestrial broadcaster that doesn't have advertising so is not payed for by advertisers  They use BBC 3 as an experimental channel for comedians to create content.  

Friday Night Dinner    

Channel 4 commissioned this program, it has two producers; Popper Pictures and Big Talk Productions. Channel 4 is payed for by advertisements. The target audience for this program is older than Bad Education's and id say it was 25-40 seeing as the actors are likely to be better known in this age gap. It is also aimed at Jewish people as the program is set around a tradition of coming together on a Friday night to have dinner. for the younger viewers they are likely to know Simon Bird from the inbetweeners, a popular comedy about a group of teen boys in college. For those who are middle aged they're more likely to know Tasmin Greig from a variety of comedy sitcoms like greenwing. The program was on after the watershed, at 9 pm, because of the use of language. For example the continual joke of the sons calling one another 'pissface'.