Archive
‘Letter to Self’ – summarising my first year at University
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Well, I am still getting the same mind block I had when asked to produce the first letter to self I wrote at the beginning of the year, but I am determined to make this one better! Looking back on my previous ‘letter to self’ I realise that to be completely honest, the quality is exceedingly poor. In comparison to the blog entries and coursework I have produced ever since, it really shows how much progress I’ve made in my writing in such a seemingly short time at Coventry University. This may be because I recall not knowing what on earth I was meant to be writing the first time round but it also highlights my improved grasp on the English language, that is as well as actually comprehending the given task!
Putting this aside, I feel this course has taught me more about where my interests lie. I now know for definite what areas within the study of Advertising and Media I wish to continue when considering module choices for my second year. The lectures I have had on the themes of ideology and representation were by far the most interesting and because of this I enjoyed producing the coursework I was set. I have thoroughly enjoyed the practical side to my course, although much to my surprise the writing I was set within Advertising was a learning curve I really liked. From studying media at GCSE right through to A Level, there were elements to the course I found slightly repetitive; however I chose to use it as an opportunity to revise my prior knowledge.
Living away from home at University has been the best experience in my life so far, I love the independence I gained and I know I have definitely grown as a person. I have made some amazing friends and am both excited and slightly wary of moving out into my own house in preparation for my second year of this course. Despite knowing that I will have a lot more work to do, I look forward to learning so much more and expanding and developing my knowledge of the media landscape. Throughout this year I have been achieving all 2.1’s aside from one 2.1, from which I hope to accomplish an overall 2.1 this year. I feel content with the grades I have attained and I plan to be as consistent at an even higher level in my second and third year.
‘Love in a Puff’ – film review
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The genre description of Love in a Puff (comedy/drama/romance) I must confess instantly made it more appealing to me more than some of the other East Asian films. This is probably hindered by my admittance to the stereotypical over-emotional woman I appear to be, but with the storyline seeming more ‘Hollywood-friendly’ than others, it has an extremely relatable narrative. It is set following the Hong Kong health authorities’ anti-smoking law (implemented in 2007) and the consequent ramifications that effected colleagues who smoke. Office workers who smoke now take their cigarette breaks on the streets and in small alleyways, leading to the accumulation of smokers from different buildings converging over their shared nicotine rushes in the many communal ashtrays throughout the city. In one of these alleys, a chance encounter and subsequent connection is depicted when characters Jimmy (an advertising executive) a
nd Cherie (a cosmetic salesgirl) meet. From this the next seven days are shown, elaborating on their fast developing relationship.
The best element to this film is simply the script, the co-writers Pang Ho-Cheung’s and Heiward Mak’s created a level of humorous and witty dialogue between the characters that made it extremely realistic. However the unmemorable storyline, as with a lot of ‘rom-coms’, I feel is lacking somewhat and is reasonably weak. For a filmmaker who is known for causing offense with graphic violence as well as equally explicit sex scenes, Ho-Cheung seems to of held back with this production. The only remotely offensive part is the language used, said to be predominantly Cantonese euphemisms and slang.
Similar to films such as When Harry Met Sally, throughout it portrays fourth wall-breaking interviews with the characters about their smoking habits and relationships that have begun and developed within ‘their’ smoking alley (known as a ‘hot pot pack’). I personally feel this stopped the flow of the film and, maybe it’s just me, but it distracted and did at points confuse me. I’m not sure if I understand how the audience benefit because of these interjections as they didn’t seem to embellish the film at all; I feel it was quite the opposite. That being said, the apparently low budget of the film was not obvious and it portrays a very realistic, somewhat idyllic whirlwind romance that presents situations any audience member would be able to connect and therefore relate to.
Bibliography
Journalism – ‘Life is more than Top Gear’
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As Editor-in-chief of Autocar and a thirty-nine year accumulation of Journalism to his name, Steve Cropley is classified as pretty much an expert in his field. For thirty-four of these years he’s been focussed in automotive journalism and now has successfully achieved high rank within the company of Autocar. To begin this ‘Coventry Conversation’ he introduces his job and status, elaborating that due to the nature of journalism and the constant changes, he ‘loves this job’. 
This is no surprise as he modestly boasts about the numerous events he continuously receives invites to, such as the Paris Motor Show. With two thirds more cars on the market compared to 1990, it is no wonder all these events necessitate critics just like Cropley in order to promote product awareness and invariably aid sales. Autocar have six motor magazines and two websites, all of which Cropley reports influence other journalists heavily.
It becomes apparent that Cropley’s interest in journalism stems from his birth and thereafter childhood in Australia. He lived in parts where water was scarce and got delivered by ‘water trains’ which also contained many other consumer goods such as magazines. This gave him the anticipation he feels his readers do and should go through now with the delay between issues. He believes that with a job in journalism, the employee works ‘for the reader’ in order to fulfil a demand and cater as well as their employer. This is an extremely optimistic outlook on his job as many believe (including myself to an extent) writers’ talents are crushed due to the desire and pressure to generate a profit and ultimately hold down their job. This is understandable, but as Cropley explains, the quality of writing should never be sacrificed especially with a magazine of this genre and regularity as the readership needs to be maintained. He states there are four key elements one must grasp to be a successful journalist and these are persistence, competence, willingness and initiative. The hierarchy within this field apparently works on meritocracy, with him advising all existing journalism students to bear in mind the ‘person sitting next to you is your rival’.
I have always thought that writing is easier if it is of a negative predisposition and not surprisingly, Cropley concurs. However he has seen many articles which are at a complete bias and absolutely nothing else. He identified this as just cheap criticism which I must confess I completely agree with because even if the author believes one viewpoint, it is extremely narrow-minded and fundamentally poor writing to only explore that side to the argument and already have a foregone conclusion. I believe writing should be all about exploration; it should be about learning and researching as the article or piece of writing progresses. Cropley explains this is one of the key writing styles that need to be enforced in order to engage the audience and essentially get them the whole way from the first line to the last word.
With the sheer competitive nature of journalism, no-one’s job is guaranteed or secure so consistency in performance is crucial. When asked what wakes Steve Cropley up in the morning, he simply replied “Fear… I love my job”.
Bibliography
http://coventryuniversity.podbean.com/2010/09/29/life-is-more-than-top-gear-steve-cropley/
Film & Photography
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I would be lying if I were to say I have consistent extra-curricular activities but I have always, at least, had consistent interests. From a young age I have always been fascinated with photography and the production of film, in particular film trailers and especially music videos. I didn’t grow up with any extra-terrestrial channels and only in the last few years have my family succumbed to Freeview, but with Top of the Pops on BBC1 and access to the internet, watching music videos was constantly available entertainment for me.
The first production opportunity I had was in GCSE Media, where I created my very own music video. Of course I was extremely proud at the time, but in hindsight it was of pretty poor quality especially as the only editing software offered to me at the time was Windows Movie Maker. However it gave me my first experience with editing which, despite being one of the most time-consuming and tedious tasks I have ever done, it made me realise the extent of my interest. From this, I went on to A level to produce a film trailer in my first year and following this a music video in my second (see below). I am proud of both, despite somehow being able to find more and more faults whenever I view them. The film trailer is inspired by films such as The Duchess set in 18th century and the music video is simply an attempt at imitating the popular culture mainstream video conventions.
The latter took me a long time to create in the first place, with all the main elements seeming to go wrong with the song choice, actress and location all causing issues with the production. I would say the shots used are rather limited and the quality as well as location of film is poor, but with the lack of budget and time constraints I faced it could’ve been a lot worse. The actress I chose was my college friend who had never done anything like this before and the day before I planned to film my teacher told me I had to change the song I was going to use due to its popularity. This was a problem in itself as my friend didn’t have much time to learn the words to the new song I had chosen, making lip syncing even more of a challenge. Nonetheless, putting this aside and viewing it as a media student I feel the editing I did is of a high standard for my experience and I think I managed to sync the movement well to the music. I uploaded the music video as well as the film trailer onto YouTube for ease of viewing at the time, so please do not hesitate to watch and judge for yourself. I hope to produce a music video of higher quality this summer, so watch this space!
‘The Man From Nowhere’ – film review
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Action/Crime/Thriller
With this being the top grossing Korean film of 2010 and my already inexistent knowledge of Korean films, I had conjured up some (admittedly bizarre) expectations. I was also advised the director, LEE Jeong-beom, had produced it with the genre of ‘American Gangster’ films in mind which I imagined would make for an even more interesting hybrid genre.
Possibly because of the stylised genre that had been attempted, I feel it appealed to a British audience more than it would have otherwise. Out of the genres identified, I think it was far from a Thriller as it contained more emotion than I would expect. This is perhaps because of the American influence. Not to be stereotypical of course, just to broaden the target market and heighten the audience’s response American films nearly always contain some sort of emotional element – even with a Thriller.
The Man From Nowhere follows the life of Tae-Sik Cha who’s employed within a Pawnshop in order to cover his sordid past. As the film progresses, somewhat tediously paced I might add, flashbacks are shown informing us how he used to work as a special agent for many years, that is until his personal life became involved and his pregnant wife was killed to get to him. He, clearly, managed to escape but ever since has laid low and been a very isolated individual. His next door neighbour, a 10-year-old girl (So-Mi Jeong) has a mother working as a drug mule while dealing with an addiction and therefore seeks refuge with Cha. The mother gets in trouble with a gang (or cartel) and consequently her and So-Mi are kidnapped. Despite having nothing to do with them, Cha becomes targeted by the gang as the pawnshop was used by the mother for secretly storing drugs. From this Cha is already involved and when he realises they took So-Mi, the only person who showed him kindness and that he ever spoke to, he makes it his mission to find her no matter what.
As I said previously, I feel a few of the earlier scenes should have been shortened in order to be enjoyed because they seemed to drag on unnecessarily. Subsequently it takes a while for the film to show its full potential, but when it does the well-choreographed fight scenes come into their own. A particular scene that stands out to the majority of viewers is a knife fight nearing the end of the film. It is beautifully composed, manoeuvred and executed despite the sound effects appearing enhanced and vastly edited.
I feel the film was generally very good, made better and more engaging by the continuous reminders of Cha’s backstory. However, as well as children being sold and used as drug mules it also becomes apparent that this ‘gang’ are involved in the black market of organ-harvesting. Although this made for an interesting and unexpected twist, I think it made the narrative more complicated and complex than it needs to be and detracted from the main plot in hand. This aside, I feel the film was produced well and considering it was only loosely based on the ‘American Gangster’ genre, it achieved this style reasonably accurately and very effectively.
Bibliography
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1527788/
‘Confessions’ – an amateur’s attempt at a film review
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As someone who has never seen a Japanese film before, I was unsure what to expect. The description of ‘Confessions’, a psychological thriller, isn’t a typical genre I would choose but I was pleasantly surprised. Not because of the plot as I must admit I found it disturbing, but as a storyline it is incredibly powerful and clearly a very carefully thought out production.
The introduction immediately had me hooked, with the use of the teacher’s narration throughout posing more and more questions for the audience. Admittedly, I felt the duration of this scene was extensive, but for the impact received when the teacher (Yuko Moriguchi) elaborates and explains that she suspects two members of the class murdered her daughter Manami, it becomes obvious the build-up was necessary. The filming techniques throughout this scene are well-chosen, especially the moments where the footage slowed down as it is very suited to the mood and the situation.
As with many Japanese films it has a lot of twists and unexpected issues, such as that with Shuya Watanabe’s mother or the HIV-infected milk. Another scene that was extremely poignant was where Shuya is on the phone to Yuko as she explains to him how he detonated a bomb by accident which killed his mother. In this, he is on the phone in the middle of a hall surrounded and circled by all his student peers while realising what he’s done and seemingly reaching his psychological breaking point. Despite being a young child, the actor sells his disposition well and it is a very emotional scene and stands out a lot in my mind.
The whole film follows the extent and pure brutality retaliation can reach, and to show this it transitions between different character’s points of view. This was useful but at the same time it felt unsettling, as well as making the subtitles hard to understand. The colours it was shot in were dreary and grey, suiting the genre, but this made it very mundane and mostly the same throughout. However I feel the soundtrack used, although all the songs sounded very much the same, was well chosen for the moments where it was used. Overall despite it being incredibly disturbing, I feel the novel was done justice and ignoring the bizarre and oddly timed choreographed scene half way through, the film was produced well and kept me intrigued throughout.
Bibliography
‘X Factor’ – do audiences care that reality television isn’t real?
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While sitting in on a talk given by Peter Ogden (TV Producer of X Factor), I felt compelled and provoked to consider reality television, in particular X Factor, in more detail. Unfortunately, despite Ogden being extremely talented within his job, he specialised in the production side of the programme. I found this interesting, but aside from the actual production process I prefer investigating how it all relates to the consumers and how the decisions made affects the audience’s response.
I understand the hype surrounding Reality Television to an extent and I don’t really watch any religiously, but admittedly when Big Brother was on I would watch the first episode so that I would have some sort of knowledge to verbalise in social situations whenever the topic arose. 
This in itself shows just how much of an impact these programmes have on society and despite being one of those pessimistic critical consumers that annoys everyone; I will not deny that I have fallen for the addictive nature of this genre on numerous occasions. The consistent popularity is in spite of the negative press that shows like X Factor have received, such as audition vocals being auto-tuned and voting being fixed etc. Stories such as these make me and no doubt others beg the question – how much of these reality shows is actually real? With the new breed of reality television such as The Only Way is Essex and The Hills legally having to broadcast with disclaimers, consumers are being shown narratives that are increasingly furthering themselves from the reality genre. These programmes are essentially dramas posing as reality shows, gaining a fresh new audience and therefore generating a lot more interest in dramas for many ungratified generations.
The main vexation I have with these programmes is the resulting new brand of celebrities that has been born and that many have termed “DIY Celebrities”. The fact that literally any ordinary person can apply to be broadcasted through this voyeuristic hybrid media form and achieve a level of fame and potential stardom seems, well, ridiculous. There is no obvious reason for their new found iconic persona like talent or intelligence as with the majority of famous people (e.g. singers, actors/actresses), but it seems the need is redundant as there is a constant public fascination with the whole ‘rise-to-riches’ narrative. Examples of this within the X Factor are successful contestants Susan Boyle and Alexandra Burke. The latter grew up in an impoverished background, whereas Boyle grew up in a council house as well as dealing with learning difficulties and bullying within the educational establishments she attended. This proved to be endearing to the public as they were such enduring figures, making the audience feel emotions such as “if they can do it, so can I!”
As Professor Skeggs cynically but truthfully states; ‘It’s a fantasy of another life in a country where social mobility is non-existent. The idea that people like Susan Boyle can overcome hardship because we’re voting for her makes it look like meritocracy is really possible.” The audience embrace the sense of control they get from voting on these programmes, feeling that they are putting right wider social wrongs by voting. As ever
yday life is being shaped by forces beyond our control (government/job losses etc.), the ability to vote gives us (the audience) back a much needed sense of urgency. Audiences get exceedingly involved with reality television, particularly as it seems to give some a dramatic narrative in their life that they otherwise may not have. This is why having it weekly has been successful, as it becomes part of people’s routine and part of people’s lives.
Perhaps with the existing and increasing dominance of social networking sites (such as Facebook and Twitter) where statuses are shared and the importance of ‘real’ friendships has seemingly been lost, audiences feel more comfortable engaging with someone through screen as oppose to in the same room. It is reported that half of the viewers say they watch the X Factor as an opportunity to spend time with the family. This in some ways is positive, but to me does it not seem worrying we need a television programme like this to bring families together? I know traditions have changed and technology now impinges on every part of children’s lives, but surely a shared audience experience is hardly family bonding? Sure, conversation could easily bounce around during and after viewing these programmes, but with half of the viewers watching it for mainly this reason, I can’t help question the impact it may be having on the basic and fundamental elements of family relations. Obviously television has been for years and is still useful for bringing people together or heightening awareness’s, but I feel this should not be relied upon in order to spend time with one’s family… Call me traditional, but I still feel there is a need for things like board and card games for children growing up. Afterall, Monopoly will teach them more about the reality and pragmatism of money than X Factor will!
Bibliography
Book:
‘Reality TV – Realism and Revelation’ – Anita Biressi and Heather Nunn
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2010/nov/21/why-reality-tv-works
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2010/dec/13/the-x-factor-voting
http://www.wessexscene.co.uk/lifestyle/2010/10/17/how-real-is-reality-tv/
‘My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding’ – mockumentary or documentary?
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Channel 4 has seemed to of successfully but firmly established a reputation for producing and broadcasting a variety of controversial television programmes. This joins other institutions such as BBC Three, with the main polemic production being in the field of documentaries. One of the most recent and seemingly popular shows is one called ‘My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding’, with one week’s episode having a peak audience of 7.4m views (Channel 4’s highest rating since 2008’s Big Brother). I personally have only witnessed the first two episodes, but even with this limited awareness of the programme’s entirety, I feel I have enough comprehension to anticipate the content of the other episodes.
However, my supposed understanding was questioned when sitting in on a talk with Jake Fowler, who is a Romany gypsy community member himself. The way he explained his feelings about the programme gave me new insight and made me realise how improvident the stereotyped assumptions I made had only been furthered and perpetuated by this programme. Where some of the content he explained was positive, the majority gave the audience a negative representation. He expressed how he and his own community feel there is a lot of propaganda in the press surrounding gypsies. Unbeknown to myself and probably due to my naivety towards this community, I never considered gypsies as an ‘ethnic minority’ until Jake Fowler spoke about it. He then elaborated and explained how being a gypsy is defined by ethnic heritage as oppose to just the way of living they adhere to. Many don’t have the same level of awareness that we seem to have of other ethnic minorities and, despite viewing this programme and meeting Jake Fowler, my knowledge still feels somewhat limited. From this, I decided that to gain more of an understanding of the extent of negative representation I would watch the first two episodes again while bearing in mind everything I had listened to in the talk.
The unbalanced representation Jake Fowler was talking about was clear, but he also said his community saw it as more of a ‘sneering mockumentary’ as oppose to journalism. He emphasised how, from this programme, new stereotypes have been added to the old, which in some cases isn’t necessarily a good thing. For example in the show, the act known as ‘grabbing’ was shown. This is where if a male gypsy is interested in a female, he will pull her to the side and refuses to let go until she kisses him. I initially found this shocking as it appeared almost like a sexual assault and, as the majority of the audience probably did as well, I instantly judged the whole gypsy community. However, Fowler explained that this method of courting is not a tradition at all and is only used in a very small part of the gypsy community; which the programme should have made clear. With this in mind, it became clear that a lot of the content of this programme may not of taken into account the differences that come with the geographic locations gypsies are established. He also explained how the majority portrayed were Irish gypsies, whose traditions and ethics differ somewhat to the Romany gypsies (who account for 60% of the gypsy population). The programme, of course, did not divulge and state such information, thus giving the audience a disillusioned perception of the gypsy community.
It also showed the sheer importance of Holy Communion and marriage, particularly in gypsy women’s lives. This topic further illustrated for me how gypsies, despite previous ignorance, have very high morals. Their choice of attire, specifically the young women, would suggest otherwise, but they have very strict evangelistic beliefs about no sex before marriage. 
At the Holy Communions the programme documented, the children were dressed very smartly, with the young girls wearing corset-style dresses that visibly cut into their skin as well as heavy make-up and high heels. This was questioned and criticised within the media as obvious sexualisation of children, but just how many gypsy communities agree with this depiction? This programme is reported to of had an impact in the workplace and playground for gypsy women already, where previous nicknames of “pikey” have now been replaced by names like “slut”. Fowler explained how this sexualisation is more typical of an Irish gypsy family, but the majority of communities would not adhere to this stereotype that is being portrayed. Either way the fact that the media made such an issue of this just seems ridiculous and hypocritical, as they only help perpetuate and promote sexualisation themselves.
To conclude, I understand the uproar that ignited in the gypsy community by this broadcast as it did show a lot of unfair generalisation, but is this really enough to warrant such a reaction? Everything shown on television contains stereotypes of every ethnic minority or culture or age etc., so why must this unfair portrayal be any more important or discriminating than any other? Speaking from the point of view of someone who, prior to this documentary had only gypsy stereotypes to go by, I still found it beneficially educational. Parts of their community were revealed to me that I really had no idea about, but as with all stereotypes within the media, negative representations get more viewers than positive. With all stereotypes there are going to be elements that don’t apply to all of the community being depicted. For example the E4 programme Skins essentially shows teenagers as all being drug users, however for the majority and in reality this is only the case for a niche. I feel where the representation of gypsies is limited in comparison to most ethnic groups; there are very few other programmes to compare it to. This gives the audience an unchallenged and very biased view, which is likely to of been another reason for their disapproval of the programme. Jake Fowler voiced his plans to commission and produce his own documentary following the gypsy lifestyle of his own community. However, would this have potential to upset opposing gypsy communities?
Stereotypes are needed in order for the media to target their audiences successfully and therefore function, but with every portrayal there will always be audiences and critics that don’t agree and are prepared to make this known. However, maybe this a good thing about our society? Because if we didn’t inform the media when factors such as their representation had overstepped the line, gauging responses would be difficult and they may not realise how thin the line really is.
Bibliography
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12311604
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/07/big-fat-gypsy-weddings
Under-representation – does advertising a product mean advertising perfection?
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As a special one-off workshop, we had a guest speaker Steve in who, for many years now, has been fighting for justice concerning the representation of disabilities within advertising. He argued that as a reported 11 million people suffer from a disability in the UK, then why shouldn’t they be positively represented in advertisements? From this, our task was to create a print advertisement for Clarks that included a disability. We had to make sure we weren’t drawing the attention away from the product and making the ad solely about the disability shown. With this guidance, we were put in small groups and then given roughly three hours to capture, edit and present our ad…
We took a lot of time contemplating and gathering ideas, with the decision of which disability to depict being the main issue. We know we had to have it visible but at the same time not obvious, so it was difficult. Despite it not feeling particularly politically correct, we were told we didn’t have to use a genuinely disabled person in the advertisement as we had limited time. With this in mind, I suggested that instead of photoshopping someone’s leg or arm off, we could put someone’s arm up their own sleeve to make it appear more realistic than just editing on its own. Where we wanted a subtle approach to the idea of disability being in a mainstream advertisement, we thought the disability should be among non-disabled peers. Similarly, we wanted the tagline and slogan to represent the brand rather than the disability, so made them have an underlying but not obvious link. The following is the advertisement me and my group produced, receiving second place out of seven groups.
The notion of equality within the media, particularly advertising, is a long debated issue. It seemed to take far too long to get to where we are now with racial representation and the media still only tends to show homosexuality in a negative light as well. With this in mind, will disability ever be shown in mainstream media in the near future? The closest we have got is programmes such as the BBC’s Britain’s Missing Top Model and, despite this being representation, it still doesn’t show equality as it’s disabled individuals surrounded by, well, other disabled people. Now this may seem a negative approach, but if they’re fighting for fair representations, then surely they want themselves represented in fair situations? Also, the BBC are obliged to produce programmes such as these because everyone with a television pays for them, so they have a duty to represent the public. Sadly, the chances of disabilities being shown in advertising are inevitably slim; advertising is about perfection and for advertisers this is key. Since a disability is not the ‘norm’ and not desired by consumers, it will not aid in selling a product so is therefore not used. As well as this, it could distract attention away from the product being promoted, which would not bode well for the companies producing them. These reasons seem trivial where human rights are concerned, but looking at it from the point of view of businesses, why would they do something if it had potential to alter and possibly harm sales? I’m sure if a disabled person owned their own business and were to launch an advertising campaign, they are unlikely to upset media conventions and risk declining sales by including disability in the advertisements. Of course in a perfect world it would be idyllic for everyone to accept disability simply as a different ‘norm’, but we seem to have the opposing negative view of disabled people being a completely different species. In situations such as these, many look to the media to blame however as I have previously stated in other posts, I feel they just perpetuate the already conceptualised reality of culture society have built.
There was recently a programme broadcasted on Channel 4 called Beauty & The Beast where they showed two individuals going into a coffee shop at different times inquiring about a job – one of the people had a facial disfigurement and one did not. The latter received more information about the job, whereas the person who had the disfigurement was turned down and denied the job completely. This is not necessarily seen as a disability to everyone, but this still shows how society continue to discriminate and how they interact with people who, essentially, oppose the ‘norm’. Obviously certain disabilities would be refused in a job that required tasks that they couldn’t do, but most just judge on first impressions and assume all disabled persons to have no physical ability at all. I feel this is unethical, disgusting and an example of blatant insolence as well as being completely illegal – it genuinely worries me how shallow society seems. And with the businesses that do employ disabled people, are they doing so because they’re good at their job? Or cynical as it is, is it more a form of tokenism to show the business in a positive light by supporting equality and keeping the law on their side?
Bibliography
http://www.channel4.com/programmes/beauty-the-beast-ugly-face-of-prejudice
‘Lost in Coventry’ Project
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In our first lecture we were put into groups and I am part of a group named BMB (an acronym unknown to myself). The only guidance we were given was to make a audio/visual product linked to the title ‘Lost in Coventry’, as well as being told to make it as original and creative as possible. As vague as a title that was, we didn’t realise our lecturers had done it numerous years before, so being original was going to be difficult. We were then informed we had less than one and a half days to complete it, so we began to panic. We thought of many ideas, but everytime we came up with something we had to ask ourselves “is it original?” and “would it of been done before?”. Coincidently, the majority of the ideas we came up with were scrapped.
We all continued to have different notions, but as Coventry’s Cathedral is so close to our University, I thought we should make the most of it and ask to film inside. Luckily this linked in with an idea we previously had so we decided to bring them together to make, what is hopefully, an even better concept. Below is the video we created, and underneath I have explained the meaning of it for you to read after you’ve made your own judgement for what it is about.
The basic storyline is that the main character has sinned (we’re not sure how, although I think she must’ve killed someone) therefore she is wearing a red top. She is lost and wants to seek redemption, so finds herself confused and dazed but in the Cathedral looking for help. Everyone she tries to talk to or make contact with know she’s done wrong so they ignore her as they know she is still a sinner. All of them are wearing black tops, which helps isolate her from the ‘Cult’ as it were and shows how she is different to all of them. She then starts to fully understand what she has done and how much she wants to repent and redeem herself, so they help convert her and she starts to become part of their ‘Cult’ (hence the colour change of her top).
Jocelyn's Blog 