Filming {[Hollie]}

Yesterday we started filming our rushes for our short film.. The weather was a perfect overcast day which we thought would help to set the mood for our piece very well.
We headed down to Brighton for about 11am and filmed all afternoon until about 4pm. The filming went very well.. although our main prop (chips) were stolen by a dog! Hahaha!!
We all worked well together and took it in turns to coordinate the shot, to film, work lighting and to take pictures, both to document our efforts and for possible poster ideas.
Pictures of the day will be uploaded shortly :)
Hollie x

More Title Ideas {[Hollie]}

After looking at the poster for 'The Green Mile' which was on display in the media studies classroom, I thought the composition of the poster would look really effective if the same sort of style was used for our piece. I like the was the main character is the focus of the poster. In our case this would be the young boy. Also the way the title is broken up by a silhouette of the two characters is really good and we thought that using the bench in the titling of our poster would look very good as this is where the bulk of the action takes place, furthermore, I like the simple colouring of the poster and the fact that the background is very out of focus. This would work very well for our social realist piece even though 'The Green Mile' is an American high concept film.
Hollie x

Revised Story Board

New ideas for shots and angles as the original animatic wasn't long enough :) Ideas taken from the facebook page as well as Hollie, Jess and Charlea.
Drawings by: Hollie
Scanned by: Charlea
General lol: Jess

Filming Day {[Hollie]}

We have decided to film over the half term period so that we can have lots of time to film. We will be filming on the 15th of Feb.
We are going to bring a stills camera on the day of filming so that we can document our efforts as well as taking photos for possible poster ideas.. Charlea does photography and so she will be good at composing pictures for poster and review photos.

Permission to film [{Jess}]

I phoned Brighton Council, general enquiries, to ask if we could film on Brighton beach on 01273 290000. Who gave me the number for The Events office. I was then put through to Vanessa, who said that as long as it were just the three of us filming and we kept in a secluded area and out of the general publics way we didn't need a permission form. Also if we were approached we couldn't be charged as we are students. I would then need to give them The Events office number on 01273 292712 and refer them to Vanessa, who will clarify that this is okay.

Props, lighting and equipment [{Jess}]

We have booked out the following equipment for the half term:

• Camera
• Tripod
• Dolly
• Large Torch
• Reflector Sheets
• Tape

Props:

• Chips (Both)
• Rucksack(Boy)
• Bench (Both)
• Glasses & Book (old man)
• Bag (Old man)
• PSP? (Boy)

Lighting:

• Large Torch
• Natural lighting

Facebook page update [{Jess}]

On our facebook page we asked for any comments or suggestions as to how to improve our film. Most of the comments back have been a bit silly tbh. But we found this one really interesting, and are discussing using this in our idea. Nicole is a film studies and video processing student at our college and i know that she is experienced with filming and plans on doing it in the future at university. Therefore her advice is even more useful as I know that she is very talented and passionate.

Nicole Jepson You could have a really nice shot of him going and sitting at a bus stop (maybe a shot from the other side of the road would look good)and he looks like hes waiting for a bus but then you have a bunch of jump cuts showing all the different busses going passt him and hes not getting on.. because he doesnt know where to ...go perhaps.and then after a few buses have passed (idealy hes sitting alone at this point) he gets up looking real sad and walks off shot.awh bless him lolgood luck.xxx

Health and Safety - Risk Assessment [{Jess}]

In order to film both internally and externally to the college, when taking out equipment we need to sign that we have understood and agree to the terms and conditions of Health and Safety Risk assessment. The full details of these are as follows.

I understand that these photos are very blury and harldy legable, however these pages can be accessed under the K Drive:

• Visual Arts and Media
• Media Studies
  
• Filming Risk Assessments
  

Consent Form {[Hollie]}

Due to the fact that one of our actors is under the age of sixteen, by law, they can not give thier fully informed consent to being filmed and photographed. To overcome this obsticle we must get written consent from thier legal guardian.
I have drawn up a consent form for the parent to sign so that we may use the childs image for our film work. It is attached above.
Hollie x

Masculinity in Magazines {[Jess]}

Discuss the hypotheses that ‘Esquire’ magazine like ‘Mens Health’ magazine is successful because it has managed to combine different constructions of masculinity in single editions.

The definition of ‘masculinity’ can be said to have changed a great deal in recent times. This is mostly because of how both men and women’s roles have changed within society due to feminism, particularly in the 1970s. Before traditional masculinity could have even been described as hegemonic, today it is believed that men have more options over which category of masculinity they fall under. However is this really a true representation of the modern man? Or has this ‘change in masculinity’ just been constructed by the media?

Magazines such as Men’s Health and Esquire have helped form definitions of different types of men according to their ‘type’ of masculinity. For example there is the metro sexual male, who, with a heterosexual orientation rejects many macho attributes often linked to masculinity and adopts many traits often associated with heterosexual females and homosexual males. Celebrity men who are often associated with being a metro sexual man are David Beckham and Gavin Henson, because they take a lot of care of their appearance.

‘Booze birds and footie’ are described as the main interests of the lad. Traditionally associated magazines with this type of male are Loaded, FHM and Nuts. However as the circulation for these magazines have dropped in the last few years, is this sign of a decline in this type of masculinity? Or are magazines such as Esquire and Mens Health simply taking on more of these features in their magazines, thus incorporating on a whole new demographic of readers.

The Ubersexual male is mainly a man who displays all the good qualities associated with gender without any of the negative stereotypes. For example he is all about ruggedness, confidence, and having an unselfish passion for causes and principles. He is usually an older man with class, such as George Clooney: he is also a family man.

The Hetropolitain man is described as a well rounded combination of attributes of lad culture, metrosexual and ubersexual. Hetropolitains, according to the Guardian in October 2005 say that “Hetropolitains enjoy both the pub and the grooming parlour, and are surprisingly committed to relationships and family life.”

Esquire magazine, in the past has been seen as a more upmarket magazine. However several articles and advertising spreads on www.esquire.com paint a slightly different picture.

Esquire showed a surprising emphasis on attractive women wearing little clothing. For example on the copy ‘Women We Love’ celebrity women can be chosen by picture under the bar ‘Search by Name: Choose a woman’. A woman can be chosen under the drop down menu and are also organised alphabetically. I found this particularly interesting that a similar article about alcohol was laid out in the same style, entitled ‘Drinks Database’, where the drinks could also be found in alphabetical order. This shows that women are on equal par with alcohol, and are there to be ‘chosen’ and ‘enjoyed’. In one particular article a female cheerleader named ‘Tanya’ is being interviewed about her job as a ‘Charger Girl’. The article discusses sport, her figure, and the weather in LA: with a large photograph of her in her cheerleader uniform. These articles in particular are quite down market and even trashy. So why are Esquire employing these tactics to attract a laddish male?

However Esquire does also have a heavy focus on the metrosexual male. For example an article entitled ’10 Style Resolutions You Should Make for 2010’ combines detailed advertising with copy. Giving very specific suggestions in fashion that one would expect to find more in a women’s magazine such as ‘Cosmopolitan’ or ‘Glamour’. There is a heavy emphasis on appearance with lines such as “Because a man can’t survive on two pairs of dress shoes alone” and related articles entitled “Eight Quick Style Upgrades for Work”. With such a dramatic shift in content is Esquire just confusing its readers into which types of masculinity are acceptable or just trying to cater to all tastes?

Contradictory to this, within Esquires advertising campaign there are many up market brands, delivering a variety of messages. With emphasis on flashy looking gadgets and accessories such as ROLEX and LG TVs, iPhones and INFINITI cars of which prices start at around £30,000. This shows that the reader would need to be doing very well financially, or advertisers would not invest so much money if it weren’t the right demographic.

Esquire’s cover gallery starting from 1933 all the way through to early 2010 clearly shows how Esquire has represented both men and women differently depending on the changing of the times. For example a general conclusion of the covers in the 1960s and 70s is that they emphasize on comedy, politics, and the family. Whereas in the 1980s the focus is more on fitness and politics. In the 1990s covers there are lots of model shots of women in provocative poses and not wearing much, however no similar shots of men. This theme is then translated into the 2000+ covers, as the photos become increasingly explicit. One particular example of this is how two similar actors of a different gender are represented in the covers of August and June 2009. Gerard Butler is shown wearing a grey suit and sitting back in a relaxed posture. Whereas Megan Fox is wearing a grey trench coat with her physical assets on display. This is a blatant example of how a man and woman of similar status in the same career can be portrayed totally differently in Esquire within an issue of each other.

Our Animatic

Film Magazines' Target Audience {[Hollie]}

From this graph which shows the number of people who access totalfilm.com in June 2009, I can deduce that the target audience for this magazine is a mainly for a middle aged demographic (35-49: 38%) who has no children and are mainly middle class (37%).

Whether the magazine targets males or females appears to be ambiguous as it is nearly half each. However, there are slightly more male readers than female which could indicate that women are more interested in gossip magazines such as ‘Heat’ and ‘Grazia’ rather than film magazines.

This graph was taken from US statistics but it gives a relatively similar picture as to the statistics for the UK. This graph was taken from: http://www.quantcast.com/totalfilm.com

Hollie x

The representation of masculinity in men's magazines {[Hollie]}

In the past there was only one type of masculinity in which all men should conform to; this was the idea of traditional masculinity. It was characterised by a strong, independent and bread winning image that all young males where socialised into thinking was acceptable and the only type of man they could be. Over the years however, this has changed and changing views surrounding both feminity and masculinity as well as changing views on sexual orientation have given birth to new and more detailed types of masculinity rather than one generic type of man that everybody had to fit into.

The metrosexual is probably one of the most recent types of masculinity. This type of man has money to burn and focuses this disposable income mainly on his appearance by purchasing stylish clothes and male cosmetics. In terms of magazine readership they are usually in the bracket of ABC1 as they have the money to spend on the expensive items that usually appear in the advertisements of such publications. Lad culture is normally the younger male aged 18-25. They are stereotyped as being obsessed by lager, football, cars and women. The type of magazines that they are associated with include: Nuts, FHM and Loaded and would fit into the category of C2DE. This is because, the audience predominantly for such publications are often young working class men who do not have much disposable income to spend on luxurious items such as expensive hair care and cosmetics, most of which, lads would consider as appealing to only homosexual men. Such magazines have recently started declining in circulation as the lad culture seems to be dying out and the soft core pornography found in these magazines can be more readily accesses on the internet. The same could be said for all types of magazines but magazines that target the other types of masculinity more are doing much better in the current climate. Ubersexual masculinity has been deemed as the ‘true gentleman’. They are normally successful businessmen that are well dressed but often still have a rugged look about them. They do not care as much about appearance but are often intellectuals who care about world issues. Chivalry is also important to the ubersexual, as they respect women but still maintain some of the gentleman stereotypes such as holding doors open for women and generally protecting them but not in the aggressive way that traditional masculinity encourages. Heteropolitan masculinity is found to be between lad culture and the ubersexual, they are often referred to as ‘lads that have grown up’. They are not lager loving sexists, nor are they cosmetically obsessed but similarly they are not afraid of a long term commitment and are often married with children.

Esquire magazine provides examples of different types of masculinity. This makes the magazine appeal to a larger target audience which is critical if the magazine is to survive as so many magazines that only target one type of masculinity are failing as people switch to online material and circulation and readership continue to fall, therefore, within the magazine, there is copy that is tailored to each type of masculinity some may appeal to lads which others target the metrosexual.

In the online edition of Esquire magazine, there were many areas targeted at the lad culture. There were advertisements on the home page alone for electronic gadgets, computers and entertainment including football tickets and other gadgets. Stereotypically this is what lads are most interested in besides women. There is also an icon for an article of famous women of the world which is entitled ‘Women of the World’ the icon image is Angelina Jolie, naked and with a silk cloth draped around her. The article itself consists of half naked female celebrities with a biography under the pictures. This would appeal to lads as there is plenty of female flesh on show. While navigating around the website there is also lots of copy about sex. Some of these articles are like problem pages where men write in to get advice on any sexual queries they might have. Although the sex obsessed male is typical of lad culture. The answers were often very tasteful and informative rather than poking fun at any problems men may have with their sex lives, which another magazine such as ‘Nuts’ would do. This suggests that the magazine is not solely for lads and instead encompasses a wide range of masculinities.

The metrosexual type of masculinity was also portrayed in the online edition of the magazine. It appeared in many areas of the magazine such as the article ‘the Best Bars in America.’ Although it could be argued that bars are of interest to all types of masculinities, there are key elements which obviously target the metrosexual. For example, the language used states ‘Bars’ and not pubs as would be used if this copy was targeting the lads or the traditional males. This suggests a more classy and affluent place to go to drink whereas the word pub suggests cheap beer and lager. This also helps to target the metrosexual male as they are thought to have lots of disposable income, they would have enough money to go to such bars and also would be able to afford to go to America on holiday. This article consists of readers writing into the magazine with their views on the best bars. There is also an alcoholic map of America called a ‘Drink Database’ and although this idea would seem to appeal to a young boozey lad, the drinks are cocktails and other such drinks that would appeal to metrosexuals and most defiantly not lads as there is no mention of any lagers in the database. Another critical part of the metrosexual male is the importance of appearance, not only do advertisements for men’s cosmetics cover the side bars of the website there are also many articles involving fashion. This idea is relatively new to men as they were traditionally known to not really pay much attention to fashion, in contrast with women. But nowadays, both sexes care about their fashion. There is a whole section of the website that is devoted to men’s style. This includes articles like: ‘Meet the man who can turn your wardrobe into a Swiss Army Knife’, ’15 clothing mysteries, solved in seconds’ and ‘How to take care of your cashmere sweaters’. Most of these articles are typical of the metrosexual as appearance is of the upmost importance although metrosexuals are not the only type of men to be concerned with their appearances.

Another type of masculinity shown is that of the hetropolitan male, these men are often referred to as the lads who have grown up. They are just as home in the local pub as in the grooming parlour and are committed to family life. The article ‘How to Tie an Ascot... Fancypants.’ This shows the audience how to tie their tie to look both fashionable and professional. This would appeal to the hetropolitan male as he would have to look professional for his job which would most probably be a middle class professional job. This can be seen as most hetropolitan males fall into the ABC1 category for magazines. The language of the article also appeals to the heteropolitan as well as the ubersexual as they use the term ‘one’ to describe themselves. This is a very upper- middle class trait and would never be used in magazines such as ‘Nuts’ or ‘Zoo’ unless it was to poke fun at the ‘posh’ nature of the middle classes. There are also articles in the style section about the best style shops around the world in major cities such as Toronto, Berlin and Denver. ‘The best men's stores, tailors, wine shops, and more in Toronto’. This emphasizes the fact that the hetropolitan males of this world are in the ABC1 category of audience, as they use major cities located over the Atlantic. They could be there on business or they could just be there on holiday, but they want the audience to find the best barber, dry cleaner, liquor store, watch repair and tailor that there are in these cities. It suggests a professional background unlike the manual nature that is often associated with lad culture.

According to studies of males in the U.K, the new male is the hetropolitan male, suggesting that this is the most prominent type of masculinity in today’s society. This could be why the website has taken extra measures to appeal to such males. For example the layout and coloring of the web edition of the magazine is mainly targeted at hetropolitan males. The layout is sleek and clean cut and the colors are mainly blacks and whites but also reds and blues. These are all masculine colors but the black and white looks like a professional business website that would target hetropolitan and ubersexual men. There are other stylish attributes to the website itself that would appeal to the metrosexual but the overall feel I that of the hetropolitan.

The idea of traditional masculinity is also present in the magazine, articles such as ‘How to escape the most awkward Christmas time conversation’ article are present throughout as a humorous stereotype of the traditional male, For instance one such part of this article is about men who would tell a child that Santa isn’t real. There are also novels included within this website. These are all novels that have been written by male authors about things that males can relate to such as sport, and money. There are different novels that target each of the different types of masculinity. The sport novels are there for the lads and so on. However the traditional male seems to e a dying breed as so many new types are more widely accepted and preferred. This could be due to feminism as women will no longer accept men who think that they should be the breadwinner and in control of the family and household.

The representation of feminity in women's magazines {[Hollie]}

David Gauntlett was the first person to come up with a theory as to the content of women’s magazines. He states that the ideology of such publications is centred on five key elements, these are; Fashion and Beauty, Men as Sex Objects, Sex and Sexuality, Relationships and Empowerment. This ideology is very prevalent today and it is easy to categorise almost all magazine editorial into one or more of these groups.

I chose to look at the Cosmopolitan website (www.cosmoplitan.co.uk) as well as the website for Sugar (www.sugarscape.com/channel/sugar-mag)

On the Cosmopolitan website, the homepage the main feature is on how to get a celebrity makeover. This fits in strongly with Gauntlett’s views. It suggests that women must look good in order to fit in with society or get a man. This stereotype has not changed much over the years as it still centres on the idea that women are there to be looked at.

The ideas surrounding women looking as glamorous as possible are also frequent in teen magazine, Sugar; it includes articles about how to look like certain celebrities and how to make your hair look great as well as step by step guides. This demonstrates that even from a young age, girls are socialised into thinking that they must conform to these fashion and beauty trends. This means that it’s not surprising that the beauty industry for women has revenue of £8.9 billion annually.
Although the old stereotypes for women are not all still as strong, empowerment features heavily in the same edition as there is also an article about Rihanna after her attack from her ex boyfriend. This article includes her thoughts and feelings on the attack and what she did afterwards. The magazine said “We're so glad she had the strength to move on.” This shows that women no longer have to be controlled by men and these days women have a voice and can stand up for themselves rather than being governed by patriarchy.

Another example of female empowerment features in Sugar. There is a competition for people who get bullied and have overcome this obstacle. Perhaps the reason they have this competition is to help girls self esteem and give them the confidence and the strength to stand up for themselves which is a skill they will need throughout life.
In the magazines, a vast majority of content was about fashion and beauty, as well as most of the advertising and advertorial space being given over to fashion and beauty. This could be because, the writers of female magazines are often female themselves and so they write about subjects that interest them, this is mostly fashion and beauty because in today’s world women are socialised into believing that they should look as glamorous as possible. This is why they use so much space in the magazine for fashion and beauty copy. There seems to be much less space given over to editorial on female empowerment. The only editorial on empowerment in ‘Cosmopolitan’ was roughly three pages in the entire magazine of approximately 300 pages. This shows the severe lack of empowerment and real life stories in such a publication and it may suggest that they don’t think that it is as important as other aspects within the magazine such as fashion and cosmetics. However, I have noted from other research that often the ‘glossy’ magazines such as these focus more on fashion, whereas, cheaper magazines such as ‘Take a Break’ have many more real life stories about women’s trauma and how they have overcome it which suggests that different types of magazines focus on empowerment but it would appear that editors and readers alike focus more on fashion than on empowerment.

The magazines include a lot of fashion and cosmetics editorial and advertisements because they get most of their revenue from such advertisements. Most of the advertisements in these magazines are for fashion and beauty products which will mean that the magazine will feature more on these companies as a way to secure that advertising revenue. Which when considering that a single page ‘run of paper’ advertisement in a magazine costs around £21,000, the magazines will want to keep this revenue as otherwise they will not be able to keep publishing. The magazines may also get clothing and makeup from the companies which advertise in them for photo shoots and copy to ensure that the reader is constantly bombarded with the idea that this company’s product is a ‘must have’ item.

Some female readers do not like the way that magazines are set out, this is because the first 20 pages of the magazine are filled with advertisements and there are many more throughout the magazine. But this is done because on average women read or scan each page at least twice and this means that they are constantly picking up the messages given by the advertisements and therefore aspire to look like the models in the adverts. This can have two effects; one is that the women will go out and by this product so that they too can look as glamorous as the models in the advert, this is what the advertisers intend to happen. The second consequence is that some women are always bombarded with the ‘perfect’ body image and therefore feel as though they are not good enough and there have been some reports that such intensive advertising can cause problems such as bulimia and anorexia in women.

In most of the magazines studied, there are still traditional representations of femininity. The majority of copy is still dedicated to fashion and beauty along with cosmetics. However, there is an increasing amount of the magazine turning into a modern representation of femininity using such ideas as ‘men as sex objects’, ‘empowerment’ and ‘sex and sexuality’ which were proposed by Gauntlett. Magazines in the 1970’s such as ‘Jackie’ did not really include any articles about empowerment or sex and focused mainly on finding a husband. Today’s magazines, however, include copy on finding a career and self gratification rather than finding a husband and domesticity.

Hollie x

Problems with writing a review {[Hollie]}

When writing a film review for our film. We must consider whether the magazine in question targets males or females and also which gender our film most appeals to. In order to write a review we must look at the language and other conventions of the magazine in question and how it targets its audience so that we can tailor our review accordingly.

Hollie

Social Realism films, made on a low budget [{Jess & Charlea]}

http://www.rh11themovie.com/#

This film was made on a student budget and has made it to DVD for £6.99 each and also screening at the main stage at the Hawth Theatre. A lot of both the cast and editing were members of Haywards Heath College. Through there determination and by utilising their individual talents they were successful in creating a professional social realism film. Although theres is feature length and ours will be a short film of 5 minutes, we can be inspired by their efforts.

Soundtrack Ideas 1 [[Charlea]]

For our piece we know we can not use copyrighted music, however we did want a lively and happy tune to back the piece. This is when we looked at copyrighted songs to base our film music around, and came across Lenka--- The Show.http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC76b0VZQog It has a calm but happy tune to it which would work well within our piece due to the lightheartedness. Also it's not too overpowering, and the first shot of the video is one whivh we are using within our piece :) smiles all round.

Title Ideas [{Jess]}

http://www.bbc.co.uk/filmnetwork/films/p0067rdb

Although the film itself, (besides being a short) isn't a social realism at all. I found the titling at the end really interesting and particularly relevant to our film. As it is about two strangers eating chips together on a bench at Brighton Beach chips from a fish and chip shop are traditionally wrapped in Newspaper. This gives it the perfect reference to our title 'Chips'.

Sound Track ideas [[Charlea]]

For our piece we know we can't use copyrighted music, however we do want a lively happy soundtrack, so I have had a look at copyrighted music, for ideas.

Poster Idea [[Charlea]]

This image will be left of the frame, it will be when the boy is balancing on the cycle lane line. Have the boy starring down, half his boy cropped out and his right arm stretched across the page as if balancing. Writing slightly translucent over the top, white font colour.

Film Poster Ideas {[Jess}]

'Kramer Vs. Kramer' is a 1979 American Drama directed by Robert Benton. Although it is not strictly a social realsim film, there are some interesting shots that could help give us some inspiration particuarly with our poster. The basic plot is of a family who are getting a divorce and fighting in court over custody of their young son. Similarly with our film they use a young boy, who hopefully will add a bit of innocent children type comedy to our film.

Our enitial ideas for a poster were to do a shot of the two main characters sitting on a bench together eating chips, hence the idea for our title being 'Chips'. We want the simplicity of our film to be represented with a simple poster that is pleasing to the eye in terms of comosition, angles and mis en scene. Robert Zemecks 1994 film 'Forrest Gump' is a good refrence of the kind of poster that we are talking about. However in order to stick to the conventions of a social realism film we are going to use a recognisable location of Brighton Beach with the classic blue railings it is known for.

The 1970s film 'Love Story' directed by Arthur Hiller similarly to 'Kramer Vs. Kramer' uses a variety of mid-shots and mid-close ups with two people in the frame. We plan on also using these shots in our film.

Poster Idea [[Charlea]]

This is an image i found of a couple on the bence, i would work well framing wise as the bench is the main focus, also because our whole film mianly consised of a conversation on a bench, it fits well with the piece.

Poster Research {[Hollie]}

When looking at poster ideas for the film, we wanted something quite simple as the film itself has a simple story line as is in keeping with everyday life. I like this poster from 'The Last Resort' by Pawel Pawlikowski as it is simple and introduces the characters very well. The Back ground is also quite simple and gives nothing away as to the location of filming. It looks like painted panels of a house or beach hut and so although we cannot tell exactly where the film takes place it is likely that it is set in a sea side town somewhere.

I liked this idea and would like to do something similar with our piece. Perhaps we could have the two characters sitting on the bench. The child could be looking up at the man and the man looking down at him. It would show the connection between the two characters and suggest that they are very similar in that the older man was in the boy's situation earlier on in his life. They could also be sitting on a bench as this is where the bulk of the film takes place.

I also liked this poster from the film 'Forrest Gump' byRobert Zemeckis, as it too is simple and it takes place on a bench. A shot like this would be very effective for our film as the simple white back ground draws the eye on to the two characters and should make the viewer want to watch the film to see what happens to these two people.

Hollie