Marxism and Hedgemony

Marxism:
The theory that society is controlled one elite power who keeps the rest of us in our place by making sure we share their ideas about the ways things should be. (e.g Blair in Gossip Girl)

Examples:
Cosmo-

• A feminist marxist reading of the magazine cover of the December 2014 issue is that we are able to recognise the ideal version of ourselves.
• A feminist marxist reading of women's magazines suggests that women are told what to think by magazines, which distracts them from really important issues, however Cosmo contradicts this view in articles like "Women Hating= Not Cool", by bringing those issues into the spotlight.
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Hegemony:
This is when social groups agree on a particular idea to make it seem natural and true (e.g. The family should consist of a mother, father and children or England's favourite sport is football etc.)

Examples:
Cosmo-

• Cosmo claims to celebrate the independent woman, however it applies to the hegemony that women should be slim and beautiful and therefore has some stereotypes

Women's Health:

Women

Historic:

Vertigo, 1958, Alfred Hitchcock
- Accused of misogyny (women hating)
- Laura Mulvey's male gaze- Ice Women, Hitchcock has a tendency to portray all his women as perfect, beautiful, unattainable  in all his films.

Fairy Liquid Adverts- 1950s-
- Present women as idealised housewives, looking perfect, dressed beautifully and using received pronunciation. Presented as the women that every woman should aspire to be.
- The adverts haven't changed too much today, they still present traditional values.

Wasp, 2003, Andrea Arnold
- British social realism, Oscar winning for best short film. 
- Takes stereotype of chav (hegemony)- representation that is just a stereotype. Present the chav in  a sympathetic way so that we can see the world from her perspective, transgressing (criticising) hegemonies.

Contemporary:

Cosmo/Womens health.
- See spider diagrams

Made In Dagenham, Set in 1968,2010, Nigel Cole
- Represents women who were influential historically but not really recognised at the time, now on in west end as musical. Raving reviews.
- Nicknamed Revlon Revolution by the media as they were quite glamorous women which detracted from the serious issue of equality of pay between men and women, media mis-represented them.
- Supports theory that individuals can make a difference to society- Giddens theory of structuration. Foucault- Techniques of the self.
-Marxist reading presents the struggle between the working class women and the ruling class, Ford managers, and how Ford attempted to exercise absolute control over the women but eventually the women rebelled.

Hunger Games, 2012-2015, Francis Lawrence
- Marxist reading- represents a society that is controlled by the media.
-But like in Made In Dagenham there is a strong female lead, breadwinner for her family (non-sterotypical role)
- Judith Butler- she has to learn how to form her identity, make a public persona which is traditionally feminine then a separate identity which enables her to survive in the ferocious world.

Representation
-Emma Watson's launch of the He For She campaign at the UN went viral and helped to promote fourth wave feminism. This campaign like 'Miss Representation' and 'The representation project' all help to promote fourth wave feminism.
-The Bechdel test as to whether a film is feminist

Gossip Girl
- Strong female leads
- A male character hides behind the 'female' gossip girl in order to conform to the feminine society.
- Structuration as Dan creates uprising.
-Opposes the idea of a patriarchal society.

Future
- Fourth wave feminism has taken hold.
- Way in which people use magazines is changing (U+G)- more aware of the reason we read magazines (diversion) and that we don't have to aspire to some unattainable idea presented in them.
-More feminist films in coming years due to its current rise of importance and awareness.

Research and Planning.

• Bentley on Creativity- 'making of the new, rearranging of the old'- the research allows me to see the old, and planning allows me to rearrange it to make the new.

AS

• Green screen testing AS
• Practice shots prior to making AS
• Timeline of opening scene of Wild Child so I could see how quickly the shots change.AS
• Researching Certificate Ratings. AS
• Prezi on the conventions AS
• Iconic Sounds of Chick Flicks  AS
• Typical synopsis of Chick Flicks e.g Mean Girls. AS
• 9 Shot analyses of Chick Flicks e.g. Bride Wars AS
• Researched and planned for possible challenges e.g. finding a location AS
• Interview with a potential viewer enabled me to learn more about how the audience sees the Chick Flick genre AS
• Asking different ages what they expect from chick flicks (ranged from 10-21) AS
• Collage of chick flick conventions AS
• What production company might invest in my chick flick production?

A2

• When I had my second day of filming, I made a list of shots I still needed to film in order to plan for the day to use my time well.
• Made a mock-up music video as my green screen usage was much more advanced than at AS.
• Attended Making Music Videos Conference which helped me research about the course and plan my video
• Storyboarding- AS- 13 shots A2- 120- all on my blog so I could easily access it when I was filming.
• Researched what to include in a digipak by looking at other popular artists ones e.g. Katy Perry
• Typical sypnosis of music videos- e.g. Best song ever by One Direction
• Annotated the lyrics to 'Nasty'
• 9 shot semiotic analysis of 'How Ya Doin' by Little Mix
• Collage of pop music videos for inspiration
• Andrew Goodwin's Music Video theory- in order to find out the conventions of a typical music video.
• Spoke to a music video director who gave me constructive criticism for my music video.

Describe how you developed research and planning skills for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to creative decision making. Refer to a range of examples in your answer to show how these skills developed over time.

Prior to my Media course, I had limited skills in the area of research and planning. However once I created a Film Opening for my AS Foundation Portfolio and Music Video for my A2 Advanced Portfolio, I became much more familiar with effective methods and I was able to use these skills in order to have more creative decisions with my work.

Bentley explains how creativity is 'Making of the new, rearranging the old', in my AS production I did lots of research 

 for other film openings of the same genre, Chick Flick, on websites such as YouTube however this was not detailed enough to get an in depth analysis. Therefore I made a timeline of the opening credits of 'Wild Child' which helped me to plan for the length of shots in my Foundation Portfolio as well as where to put the credits in. Furthermore, at AS I also carried out a 9 shot semiotic analysis of a range of films including 'Bride Wars' which helped me to research the signs and symbols typical of the genre. These film openings aided me in making creative decisions as films such as 'St Trinians' and 'Wild Child' gave me inspiration for a range of shots, in particular, the feet stepping out of the car as the new girl arrives at school. Furthermore I made a collage of the key conventions of the Chick Flick genre, this mainly features the colour pink with other 'girly' things such as shopping bags.

At A2 I did further research about the pop music genre. This included looking at some music videos in order to understand a typical synopsis of videos in that genre, for example in One Direction's 'Best Song Ever'. I also did a nine shot semiotic analysis of the Little Mix video 'How Ya Doin' in order to see the conventions of the pop genre which Andrew Goodwin outlines in his 'Music Video Theory'. An example of this is a link between the music and visuals. I ensured I included this convention as the shots throughout my music video are very quick and match with the beat of the song.

 Exercises like my preliminary task taught me how to use highly effective camera angles such as  a shot-reverse-shot, which I then continued to use in my coursework. This helped me plan for the shots that I would go on to use in my Foundation Portfolio. At A2, my Preliminary Task was a mini music video to 'Drop It Like It's Hot' by Snoop Dogg, I did a semiotic shot by shot  analysis of this, which enabled me to learn more about new shots, including long shots and extreme close ups which I also used in my Advanced Portfolio. It also enabled me to learn more about editing, and the fast pace at which the shots change. When I made my A2 preliminary task, I was able to plan for any expected challenges for the real music video, this included issues such as finding a location and a performer. However once I made the real thing these issues were sorted thanks to my prior planning. 

As part of my research at AS I used a website called Survey Monkey in order to create a survey which I sent out to the whole school, this was highly successful and I received many results which enabled me to tailor my film opening to my audiences ideas. Furthermore at A2, I also sent out a survey, asking about my target audience's music tastes, however I did not only send the survey to the school, but I also put it onto different social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, in order to receive a much wider demographic and because of this I received over 100 replies.

Another skill which I developed over my media studies course, was effective Blogging. This came in very useful whilst planning both pieces of coursework, as I was able to post all my progress in one place online (rather than in lots of books). This made it all easily accessible, which was helpful whilst filming as I was able to have my blog up, presenting all my ideas clearly in front of me. At AS on the website Blogger, I learnt how to create blog posts, import pictures and create labels. At A2, my skills developed further as I learnt how to embed Youtube videos as well as add different backgrounds to my blog from other websites such as ShabbyBlogs, in order to make it much more creative. Blogger was very useful when filming as in both years I was able to have my story boards at hand and accesible anywhere. At AS my storyboard only had 13 shots however at A2 my knowledge of planning advanced and I have over 130 shots planned. This made it much easier at A2 to be well prepared and always ready to film.

For my Advanced Portfolio, the ancillary tasks of making a Digipak and Magazine Advert was a challenge. However once I researched the digipaks of other popular artists such as Katy Perry and The Vamps I was able to clearly understand the conventions, and the typical layout of a 6 panel digipak. For the magazine advert, I researched artists and immediately came across a Jessie J advert; I loved this and took many different ideas from it, for example the monochrome colour scheme.