Why Did Dredd Fail at the Box Office?

Pre-Production

Dredd is a film all about a violent and futuristic city that where police have a place in the authority to act as a judge. They decide the punishments for those crime committers and they make the point of why they did it. One cop called Dredd teams up with a trainee judge and takes on a gang from Beach Trees tower block that deals with the reality-altering drug, slow-mo. I would say that it is a fast pace film that is quite quick at getting into the action. The film’s producer was someone called Alex Garland who also produced 28 days later and sunshine. These two films however are very different from Dredd. The distributers for the film played a big role of the film getting known and they were; Entertainment Film, Distributers and Lionsgate. Lionsgate are a Canadian or American entertainment company who have distributed many other films like the hunger games, and the power rangers. Both quite big films therefore Alex Garland probably thought going with Lionsgate was a good option. Lionsgate also announced a three picture deal with another company, IM Global in 2010. Finally the script writer, the script writer was someone called John Wagner who has worked on A History of Violence. He worked alongside another script writer called Carlos Eiquerra who worked on Comics Britannia. This means that both of these writers have worked on things to do with the past so doing the future is a bit of a mix up for them.

Another film distribution company includes IM Global. IM Global is leading film financing, sales and distribution company so you would be surprised how Alex Garland didn’t have IM Global as a distributer as well. Another example would be DNA films. DNA Films is also a film company however it is British and it is founded by Duncan Kenworthy. Duncan Kenworthy is the producer of very famous film, Love Actually. The company is all funded from the national lottery so they make their money very differently. DNA films also however decided to maintain a relationship with Fox Searchlight because of potential bigger projects that could work on.

The stars of the film Dredd include huge star Carl Urban who announced his main part in Dredd at comic con in 2010. Comic con is a huge comic book event and convention that’s all about superheroes, marvel that’s held in a variety of places. Carl announced his role in LA. I feel that he did this because it might have attracted the target audience of the film as it is a comic book event and Dredd was originally a comic book. Also it would get the people interested in the concept of the film because he would be able to talk about what the films going to be about. Because of this early announcement of Carl Urbans role and the way he announced it, the company actually made $30million dollars in film pre-sales. As well as this the distributer paid $7million dollars to show the film in the UK because they thought it would be a big hit. This is surprising because Dredd was actually filmed in Cape-Town in Johannesburg so you would have thought that Dredd would be an American dominated film. On the other hand 12 Years A Slave is a film that was also filmed in America and that was very popular in Britain.

Production

In the film Dredd a lawgiver gun had to be created. The gun was designed in 1995 and appeared in the comic book, in the first original film and now again in the new film (2012). The could have meant that people were bored of the same older concepts like the gun from the comic book and wanted to see something different. This, may be the gun but it could be changed slightly. All this relating to the box office figures as people didn't want to see all the same things. As well as the gun being made the slo-mo sequence had to be designed. This sequence also appeared in the film, Never Let Me Go by Jon Thurn. There was a problem with all these drugs and violence because they wanted to keep the film at an 18 certificate. It includes lots of forbidden language so they didn’t particularly want it to go any lower. Some people think that having a film as an 18 is difficult to get known because the audience range is a lot smaller. However the film makers actually had no doubt about the film being known, they felt as if it would become huge. The filming of Dredd began on the 12^th November 2010 and it took approximately thirteen weeks to do. The second unit photograph occurred with the in the first 7 weeks and was over by the eighth. When it comes to the shooting of the film and what cameras were used it was done digitally and primarily in 3D using Red MX, S12K and Phantoms flex high speed camera. This made sure that the film could be watched in 3D and 2D, opening up there audience range further. To use these difference cameras the producer had to involve multiple camera rigs, some of which had to be newly created so that they could fit and work to certain camera angles.

Post – Production

The makers of the film had to experiment with some of the visual aspects of the production in the ‘mega city’. This included the positioning and initial design of the tower blocks that were supposed to make the impression of the city being new a modified over the top of the older city scape. When the tried to replicate the tower blocks from the comic book pictures they noticed that it would make the buildings just look small. To alter this, instead of putting the set close together they spread them out so they could really emphasise the bigger tower blocks. As well as making the buildings look smaller it also made the roads and cars more visible out of the ‘mega city’ scenes. There was one main issue that occurred when it came to the editing of Dredd and this was that Travis, the main editor was prohibited in the editing process as there were creative disagreements between some of the production team and executives. A man named Garland then had to take over at late notice but his contribution was actually considered to be significant enough for him to get a directors credit. This was considered to be quite unusual as Garland had never directed a film before. The whole disagreement with Travis resulted in him just monitoring the progress of the film and he ended up with no input into the editing of the film production. In October, Travis and Garland actually paired together and announced a joint statement about an ‘unorthodox collaboration’. This meant that Travis could still be involved in the film and proved that Garland was in fact not looking for a co-directors credit.

All of this in my opinion relates back the question because it talks about how someone had to take over directing due to issues at late notice. This could have an effect on the box office figures because the person who took over wasn’t very experienced in what he was told to do therefore the film could have been quite stuttery in some ways as he won’t have known what to do and when to do it. Another point to make about the change in role for Garland is that it might have initially put people off watching the film because its a more unknown director and people like seeing what they know. What I mean by this is that Garland isn't well known when compared to people like JJ Abrams and that could mean that people would much rather see something else that almost has a guarantee of being a good film whereas Garland would be more of risk. All this could affect the box office figures for Dredd. nother thing in the pre-production stages that could have linked back to the box office could be about the comic books. Did they try too hard to replicate the books or should they have changed it slightly so people became more interested in the new and potentially better film version?

Distribution and Marketing

Dredd as a film was shown in 2,506 locations and cinemas and only 2,200 of them were 3D. This means that there wasn’t too much option to watch it as a 2D film. This could result in a problem because some people wouldn’t want to pay the extra few pounds to see it in 3D when for less money they can see a different film. To get the film more views, the producers had to advertise it further through marketing virally. To do this they almost did a whole section about the new film at Comic Con to under 25s and these people would be the prime people to go to the cinema. As part of this campaign to get Dredd known, LG partnered with other publisher 2000AD and Motion Comic and created an online comic strip for people to see that was a prequel to Dredd. The viral marketing was something a bit different and a bit simpler; the film won the Golden Trailer Award so that when people watched the trailer they would see that it won an award. The film also appeared at the Fantastic Fest. This event is an annual film festival in Austin Texas and was founded in 2005. This would appeal to Dredd’s target audience because it shows films similar to Dredd and the people that go to the Fantastic Fest are people very interested in all different types of films. This meaning that the film would probably gain more viewers just from this one event. Again I have to mention that the films trailer won a Golden Trailer Award so this would influence the audience of the people that attended the awards to go and see the film for tips and things to make their own films better.

When it comes to the actual box office figures the film actually earned just over $41 million at the box office on an estimated budget of $45 million. This sadly meant that the film company didn’t reach any profit at all. The film company had to use quite an unusual technique to get people to come and see the film and that was completely removing the chance to go and see the film in 2D. By doing this it meant everyone who wanted to see the film would have to pay for the more expensive ticket. The distributors of Dredd however feel that the film will attract loads of people and they think that the film will definitely get a greater profit by doing this because people don’t have the chance to see the 2D version. This strategy of getting a better profit didn’t quite work and the company failed to get the profit of money they wanted. This is the reason why no other big blockbuster films try this and take different actions instead. There is a certain percentage that are physically incapable of seeing the 3D image and that is 18%. This will make it even more difficult for the film to make a profit because they won’t even have the option of going to see the film. Another problem actually happened with the film and this was due to the time it was released. The film was released after The Raid and the two films had an incredibly similar concept in them. This would have probably stopped people from going and seeing the film because they will have already seen something very similar so would most probably not enjoy it. This meaning they would take their attention elsewhere and Dredd would miss out with more box office figures. When it comes to DVD sales and where Dredd actually came in the DVD charts it was much unexpected. In DVD sales the film made $10,623,857. This is quite a lot of money considering the production company became unsure and worried about the films intake. Dredd in the charts was seen as the number 1 selling DVD and Blu-ray and the money they made was all due to the fact that 650,000 copies were sold. However Blu-ray copies accounted for nearly 50% of that figure. All of of this shows that only releasing the film as 3D was a bad idea yes but it also didn’t have too much of an impact, in my opinion, to sales. This also probably meant that people bought the DVD instead of going to see it at the cinema. In the US there was one particular audience demographic that was the largest. I feel that this group is hard to specify however. This distribution pattern could of have an impact negatively on the film. This because people preferred seeing the film on DVD or Blu-ray due to pricing being so high in price. It made buying the DVD itself better value for money even if you did turn out not to like the film. All this links to the film failing in the box office because it meant that people would make an instant decision of whether to go and see the film or not. The mass majority of people did in the end make the decision as to not go and see the film at the cinema and simply buy the film instead. This then became popular knowledge and even more people didn't see the film at the cinema. Did this mean the prices at the cinema had to rise due to not many people going? No, it didn't but what it did mean was that the film got lower and lower in the charts and started to get criticism from the press. 

When it comes to Dredd failing at the box office I have most probably given plenty of reasons above. What I am going to do however is highlight some key points of interests that are considerable factors to why the film struggled to get ‘mega’. The first point I am going to highlight is the fact that the producers only released the film in 3D. There have been films before that have been released and they didn’t take off. When they decided to do this they must have known about the risk they would be taking and how they might not get the attention for the film they wanted. With the film being the type it is, people really have to know about the story to decide whether they want to see it. After watching the trailer for the film, even though it won an award, I personally feel it didn’t express the feelings of the film well enough. It seemed to portray it as film about the whole city and not just one tower block. For me as a person who likes this kind of film, I probably wouldn’t have gone to see it and would have gone to see something similar but different.

So why did Dredd fail the box office? Some people say it’s because it wasn’t British enough. What I mean by this is that the American audience probably weren’t expecting the film to be so stereotypical and so UK influenced. This probably led to them losing interest quite early on.  Some people say it’s because it was an 18 so it wasn’t getting a big enough audience. And some people say it’s because it would get compared to films like Spiderman and The Avengers. That is probably true, it probably would be compared but that wouldn’t explain why the film was failing. During the marketing of the film, not much was done to make the film appear popular globally and this meant it was only really aimed towards Britain and America. As well as them using typical marketing techniques they also used a website, and the aim of that was attract ‘attention’ and give out spoilers about the film. Could have that ruined the film so much that people just decided not to go and see it? To conclude this assignment I personally feel that the failure was due to Dredd not being an overly popular comic book in the first place. The character wasn’t very accepted and audiences didn’t become interested enough in the story line. Dredd was a Marvel comic book and like I said before there were so many things that it could have potentially been compared to. Marvel comics include; Spiderman, Thor, The Avengers, Iron Man, Hulk, Wolverine. These six comics in particular were very popular and were seen as the mainstream reads of the graphic novel industry. Dredd on the other hand was one of those added extra heroes and was quite low scale in the aspect of storyline and character. At the box office in the UK Dredd earned a total of $6.9 million dollars. So it wasn’t really successful and did kind of fail with box office figures for many reasons but it will still be known as a comic book classic.

When I compare the UK box office figures to something else of a similar genre like The Amazing Spiderman 2, you can see quite a big difference. Spiderman gained £19.77 million pounds so putting that in dollars it would be $32.12 million dollars. This is one big difference between the two films. The Amazing Spiderman 2 is based on the classic marvel comic book and is a remake of a previous Spiderman film. The film production stares people in it like Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone and Jamie Foxx. Andrew previously stared in a film called; Never Let Me Go. This film was a previously mentioned film. And Emma Stone in a films like; Crazy Stupid Love and Easy A. So both Dredd and The Amazing Spiderman 2 have well known stars in them so you would be surprised that Spiderman did better in the box office than Dredd did because you would have thought that they would have attracted the same audience. Spiderman was directed by a man called Marc Webb and he has previously directed other things like 500 days of summer and The Amazing Spiderman 1. The film was marketed in a similar way and it first released footage on April 16^th which was before it was meant to be. This meant that people would have been even keener to go and see the film because they would want the producers and distributors to release the actual film earlier as well. Like Dredd the film was marketed at comic con in San-Diego and it premiered a four minute trailer. This once again captured their target audience’s attention at the comic book event. From all the marketing the film received mixed reviews from film critics and you would have thought that this would have taken the box office figures down slightly but it didn’t. The reviews said that the film had over stuffed plot lines, set pieces and villains but Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone were very good at giving the film heart. When these reviews are compared to the once of Dredd you can see a slight difference. The reviews from Dredd appeared to be very positive and created memory. In my opinion I would say that Dredd got better initial reviews than Spiderman so this makes me again question why Dredd failed at the box office. However I think that it will always lead back to Spiderman being a classic and Dredd…not so much.

Teenage Stereotypes

Needy - The stereotype of needy does in some ways relate to the emotional stereotype. I do agree with this stereotype because teenagers will still 'need' friends, parents, other relatives etc. So needy in my opinion isn't a bad way of putting it. On the other hand, needy is a very powerful word and could also mean other things like clingy and protective. This meaning to me that in the wrong context not all teenagers are needy but when you here needy in the context of family needs etc, it would be okay.

Emotional - I do in some ways agree with this stereotype as teenagers do go through a lot of emotional change in relationships, friendships, family etc. However, the word, emotional could relate to crying and acting like 'babies' and not a lot of teenagers, males in particular, cry. They try and be hard and show off to their peers so stereotypically being emotional would be a sign of weakness. This overall meaning that actually, emotional, as a stereotype would be aimed at mostly females. 

Self Obsessed - Self obsessed is a very stereotypical thing to say about teenagers because doesn't everyone want to look after themselves. Yes, I do think you get the ODD one or two teenagers who are so obsessed with themselves they will do anything to make themselves the best but I do not think that all teenagers are like this as the majority of teenagers are quite insecure.

Thugs - Not all teenagers are thugs. Research actually shows that teenagers are a lot more respectful than they used to be. Thugs is a very precise word also. I feel that the word thugs almost means chav and if I say so myself, I would stereotype thugs and chavs as people perhaps living in rougher city areas rather than the outer areas. This overall being a stereotype that isn't at all fair to give to teenagers.

Anti Social - A lot of the time teenagers are seen on there phones with their headphones in so anti social as a stereotype is probably correct to say.

Lazy - I do however agree with this stereotype as a lot of teenagers, in my opinion, don't get out much and are quite self involved. Not self obsessed, self involved. Adults, a lot of the time parents, think that their children or teenagers in general don't help as much as they should etc, but actually, they most probably acted exactly the same themselves and now know how their parents felt and so on...

Loud - This is normally a stereotype that is given to teenagers in a particular area. This perhaps given to those in rougher areas however adults and people generally put all teenagers within this category without thinking about other opinions. There are a lot of different personalities of teenagers and they are not all stereotypically loud. I would say loud as a stereotype would be something to do with disruption and annoyance of other people and not loud as in enjoyment and excitement to be at a particular place like bowling or a theme park.

Selfish - I do not agree with this stereotype as teenagers can be very giving in time and effort. What I mean by this is that a lot of teenagers do a lot of work for charity shops and for charities in general like sponsored activities. This therefore meaning that teenagers aren't exactly getting money out of it or anything like that but they are giving to other people. On the other hand I do sometimes think that teenagers can be selfish in the aspect of family. Do they appreciate what their parents do for them etc? This then makes me think that all teenagers are selfish in some ways but I think that is a general thing for everyone of any age.

Dramatic - 'Dramatic' when defined is often linked to a performance and/or an over exaggeration and I think that teenagers can be quite dramatic. I think this because when something shocking or exciting happens teenagers often do get quite emotional and dramatic about it however I wouldn't say all teenagers are dramatic, so putting all teenagers under the stereotype of dramatic I feel is wrong.

Moaners - I think stereotyping just teenagers as moaners is wrong because a lot of people moan about certain topics and people of lots of different ages moan about a lot. I do however think that teenagers moan if they don't receive what they want but then again this could just be something natural. I have seen this happen but I probably do it myself also.

Self Harmers - Apparently a lot of teenagers self halm and this links to the aspect of over emotional and insecure. Self harm would actually be a condition therefore it is wrong to stereotype teenagers as self harmers. This overall meaning that as a stereotype, teenagers being self harmers is false but the mass majority of people assume that that is what teenagers do. 

Intimidating -  This is a stereotype that most elderly people put on teenagers. They say that teenagers make them feel uncomfortable when out. I do agree with this that some people can intimidate the elderly and some other people in general but this has been put as a stereotype of ALL teenagers. 

Party Animals - Stereotypically all teenagers like to go to parties and get drunk however this shouldn't be put as a general stereotype as it is in my opinion is only particular groups of people that like to party 'hard', like animals. 

Teen Sex Pregnancies - This is stereotypically seen in the media too as well as in general. Also it is stereotypically most common in rougher areas. Some people may agree with this but not all teenagers get pregnant.

Insecure -  This shown through bullying and people getting self conscious with themselves of what they where and where the go etc. It can also have something to do with relationships and how 'all' relationships at a teenage level aren't serious. This is very stereotypical as most of the time, teenage relationships last a long time and lead to futures together.

Common Stereotypes-Ethnicity

http://www.scribd.com/doc/240666622/Common-Stereotypes

 To begin with I probably need to explain what ethnicity is. Ethnicity is a belonging of a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition. This would be called an ethnic group. An ethnic group is stereotypically a socially-defined group of people who identify with each other based on common ancestral, social, cultural, or national experience. Being part of one of these ethnic groups tends to define you as a person by your cultural heritage, ancestry, and myth of origins, history, homeland, language (dialect), or even ideology. It can also have something to do with your cuisine, physical appearance and something fashion choices.

Since the 9/11 attack and all the political issues that sided with it, we commonly see that certain ethnic groups are represented in different ways. Religion I would say is significant here because people look at religious figures and how they are represented. Stereotypically people look towards non-religious leaders more positively than leaders that are religious. Issues can also be created by national and regional identity. Western and non-Western people (in terms of clothing, social attitudes – e.g. towards women and alcohol – religious practice, music etc.) can be a key binary opposition to look for. The most negative stereotype that we often see is of Muslim/Asian/Middle eastern characters. They are normally often similar to the old stereotype of the Northern Irish; Violent, fanatical and religious. More side taking representations of people being ethnically stereotyped may include issues of social class and status and how black youths are stereotyped as criminal. This is spreading to Asian youths being stereotyped like this also. With coloured youth people in particular, in TV dramas you often see a heavily Americanised character through the persons language, dress and occasionally there musical taste. You may also get in TV dramas racist white characters that are against the ‘black criminals’.  The question that is often asked though is; are the different ethnic groups shown in TV dramas, have more in common with each other than they actually have differences.

The TV drama that I will be focusing on is Doctor who and how ethnicity is stereotypically linked to it. At the end of May this year there was a discussion about the ethnicity of the programme and whether it was okay to show or not. In the new series of the show the new star is Peter Capaldi and he is a Scottish man so the show has started making references to stereotypically Scottish things. David Tennant, also Scottish, stared in the TV drama however he changed his accent for the show and was never known as Scottish in the programme. It is only the new series where they have kept the identity of the actor in the programme and added something ‘different’. Peter has also mixed up the show further as he disposes of the boyish attitude and gets older. Previous actors like David Tennant and Matt Smith played the character much younger of 34 and 27 when they landed the part. Peter however is an older man at 57 and is a throwback to the show’s roots when the character was once iconic. Another thing about ethnicity that I should mention about doctor who is that it is alien based, so that no matter what, they have included everyone in their show.

Representation of Tony - Skins

Representation of Tony – Skins


I will be looking at how the character Tony is represented to the audience in TV series, Skins. I will be analysing his character, the way he acts towards other characters and also what his personality is like. Throughout doing this I will look at the mise en scene in the programme and other specialist things like; camera, editing and sound.

 

At the start of the first episode of skins we are given a shot of Tony in his bed with a duvet cover with two naked people on it. The man on it was facing down and the woman was facing up. What I found interesting about this was that Tony was positioned in the very center of the bed, neither with the man nor woman. This initially suggested to me that he could be confused about his sexuality. Following this you heard an alarm go off however Tony was already awake laying there, directly facing the camera in the center of the frame. Two camera shots were used in this first shot and they were an extreme close up and then the camera zoomed out to a bird’s eye view of the whole bed. This could be seen as a longshot. He also noticed how he had half of his face in shadow and half clearly visible. This could be to give the audience an initial impression that he is quite a dark and sneaky character but also that he is shy in some ways. Maybe? Because his alarm went off after he was awake I think he must have had something on his mind that had either kept him awake all night or must have woken him earlier than he wanted to.

 


After this, the camera frame changed and it moved to seeing his room much clearer and it stayed as a long shot while you saw him get out of bed and start his day. He began with him doing his exercises and posing to himself in the mirror. This suggests to me that he cares a lot about himself however he is a bit obsessed with himself too. The music and backing track to the scene turns to rock music and this must be his personal choice as it is music within the scene rather than it being added afterwards. This is called diagetic sound as it was already in the scene. Non diagetic sound is when it is added afterwards in editing. Other sounds are also involved in the scene. This includes the use of morning bells and his other alarm clock. The bells could signify that he lives in a quiet village although perhaps bordering the city as you can hear the bells rather than everyday traffic in a city type area. Living in a village also makes me initially think about his family and how he must have a tight relationship with them. Tony then leads to looking out the window after his alarm goes off. This is at a woman through another window as she gets dressed. She stands naked and knows Tony is watching her and is pretty much encouraging him to do so. The camera angle that is used in this case is a personal view from Tony himself and how he would see the young woman across the street. I feel that the woman is older than Tony and likes his attention due to his lust for sex. Tony could be lonely and I think this because of the way he looks at the woman. He looks at her as if she is an object and he is using her to gain a ‘buzz’. Another reason I think that he could be lonely is because of his quilt cover and the way he doesn’t position himself with either person

When looking at the way Tony presents himself in the programme he appears to be a bit OCD. When he is getting dressed in the morning he makes sure that everything is perfectly folded and all his shirts (about 6) are hung up above his draws as if they were being presented at a shop rather than in a teenage boy’s bedroom. His OCD may also have something to do with why he is so obsessed with the way he looks and could be a reason why he always does a workout in the morning as soon as he wakes up. Another reason Tony is represented that gives the audience an idea that he is OCD is how tidy his room is. When looking at the area around his bed in the opening scene you can see that his floor is completely clear and his bed looks as if it hasn’t even been slept in. Again this could also be another signification that he might be slightly lonely.

After this the camera goes onto Tony’s younger sister. She is walking along the street early in the morning and wants Tony to let her in. To distract his dad Tony turns up the volume on his stereo to its maximum and his dad comes storming in. Tony speaks in a very polite manner to his dad as he swears and yells at him. This could be seen as Tony being spiteful and somewhat passive aggressive. By helping his sister sneak into the house and not snitching on her suggests that he cares about his sister however is rebellious with her towards their parents. I guess that Tony could be seen as stereotypical teenager. The camera angles in this scene range from being extreme close ups of that dad to potentially elaborate the fury in the scene and also show full body angles so long shots on Tony to make him look smaller. However, when looking at the behaviour of the father and son, Tony appears to be in control of the relationship when it is normally the dad. Tony is also in control of the sister, Effie, as he could simple go and tell the parents what she has been up to. Further representation of Tony is shown in a similar manner when he is in the bathroom. Tony is seen reading a book about nausea in the shot showing that he is very intelligent. He also looks intelligent in what he wears because it is very basic however is also quite stylish. He is wearing a pair of beige chinos, a plain red top, a V-neck black jumper and a pair of white shoes. This will all have been planned out very carefully in costume design because they had to make sure that Tony did look intelligent but they also had to make sure that he was keeping his look of ‘popularity’. The nausea book that Tony is caught reading would probably be to expand his knowledge for maybe future university/college applications as he would have expanded his knowledge rather than wasting his time. 

 


Another thing that I notice about Tony is how he is represented when he goes out in the morning. He is the person to wake everyone up and get the ready for the day ahead. He begins with ringing someone up called Chris. He is with someone in bed and Tony encourages him to continue and acts as if he is the boss of the whole situation. He the calls up another friend, and she is playing her musical instrument. He attempts to talk to her but she tells him off and he ends the call. From these two first calls I got the impression that Tony is quite a manipulative person and normally tends to get his own way rather than people saying no to him. Tony also appears to have an aim for everyday and in this case in this episode it is getting his best friend Sid to have sex before his 17th birthday. He continues to call around his friends and speaks to Anwar who is Muslim and Max who is a gay dancer. This to me makes me think that Tony is very popular and has a quite broad range of friends. This makes him as a character to more interesting and will also give the audience something more to connect with as it makes the programme itself link to, different genders, different sexuality’s and also different cultures. Anyway, he calls up a girl called Michele and asks her straight out to have sex with his friend Sid that evening and treats her as if it is her duty to do so. This again gives me the impression that he is quite a controlling person and also is very disrespectful to woman. Being disrespectful towards woman wouldn’t give any potential girlfriends a very good first impression, this could be another reason why he could be lonely and is in ‘need of sexual activity’.

The next section that I will be looking at in terms of Tony and how he represented is the mise en scene of skins. This for example is the props he is given, the action going on within the frame he is in and things like that. In terms of props Tony has a mobile phone, very basic and typical for a teenager to have but it shows he must have a social life and is high in popularity, as he seems to be on his phone a lot when walking down the street. Another prop that I will be looking into is the fitness equipment at the start of the show that is in his bedroom. His bedroom looks very intelligent and clean and you would often stereotype this attitude with a geek or someone who isn’t very popular. However in this situation it’s someone who appears to be very popular and quite ‘cool’. He obviously cares about his belongings and himself, hence the exercise and fitness equipment. He had weights, a pull up bar, sit up mat etc. This, to me and as the audience suggests that he could be trying to impress people and stay within a certain type of people rather than him being labeled as something else. This could be another reason why he has friends that are all different because he is trying so hard to fit in. The way he actually speaks to his friends is quite narcissistic as he almost speaks down to them. This represents him as someone who doesn’t actually see any potential damage they could cause. An example of this could be getting Sid to have sex with someone just so he can keep his and Tony’s friendship. This also happens so that Tony doesn’t get seen to be associated with a loser. This is almost threatening and arrogant. Another example is when he speaks to his dad and acts in a spiteful way; this could lead to a non-existent father son relationship that they will most probably regret in the future. The lighting that is used in the clip of the programme that watched makes the programme seem quite bright and upbeat. The colours and light activity could a way of making the audience connect to the day-to-day life of the characters. This could be like getting up early in the morning for social things like Tony or coming home from a party early in the morning like Effie. Either way the audience can resemble something, even the parents. Maybe the audience acts like Tony at home and have to do there exercises in the morning but still keep in touch with their intelligent side of life. Other lighting features include the shadowing of the woman that Tony looks at through the window. It keeps the programme decent and the darkness also adds a sense of suspicion. Should Tony be really doing that or could he get into trouble for it?

What are the relationships like between Tony and the other characters? If you analyse the first relationship that you see in the programme, with the father, you can see that it isn’t very strong and it is almost a love hate relationship. When the dad storms in in the morning you can see that he is fed up of his sons attitude and how he speaks down to him. This seems odd as it is usually the father’s job to be in charge and in this case it is the other way round. An example of cheek that Tony gives his dad is when he goes down the drainpipe rather than opening the door to let his dad in to the bathroom to use it. This aggravated the father even more so giving Tony a sense of ‘pride’. The next relationship that you see represented in the programme is between Tony and Effie, his younger sister. Siblings don’t usually stick up for each other but in this case Tony makes sure his sister gets back into the house okay without getting into trouble and gets himself into trouble to help her out. This as a representation of Tony shows that he can be quite a caring person despite being controlling and arrogant towards others. This especially happens with his sister. You only see Tony for a short amount of time with his mother however it does look as if she doesn’t care about what he does. When his dad comes storming into the room to tell Tony off the mother just stands there and appears to smirk slightly. This will give Tony the encouragement to not behave himself. His mother also seems quite laid back with him going out early in the morning for no reason and with the attitude he actually has towards his dad. When it comes to male friendships Tony does seem to be pretty polite and happy towards them, makes them laugh like a good friend should do. With Sid he is very encouraging and supportive in the fact that he is ‘still a virgin’ however he is very passive aggressive in the fact he basically tells Sid that he has no choice in what happens to him, sexually. With Chris he really gets into the idea that he is with a girl in bed when they are on the phone and Chris appears to be the player of the group. Tony talks to the girl and almost in a flirtatious way as if he wants to join in. He probably does. This friendship relationship probably isn’t very strong as you would expect Tony to come to between his friends and their girlfriend’s partnerships by perhaps telling stories or forcing himself in on the ‘action’. I think Tony could be a player himself. When you see Tony’s female friends you would think that he would be quite popular with them and they would really want to talk to them however one of them doesn’t really. She turns him down and this probably comes as a surprise to Tony as he is ‘so popular’ with the ladies. At least that’s what he wants to think. The way he is represented in terms of partnership relationships he looks as if he would struggle getting a committed girlfriend due to manipulation and disrespect. An example of this would be the situation between Sid and Michele.

In conclusion I think that Tony appears to be a very handsome, popular and academically gifted person and has a very stereotypical English middle-class background. He plays cruel games with his family and friends, in particular those closest to him showing that he is manipulative and sneaky. Tony's sexual encounters are supposedly vast and eventually when he gets his girlfriend Michele it is a rarity too. I feel that Tony thinks that sex is a type of power so lusts for it in any way that he can. So, Tony is represented in Skins in many different ways, a dark side and a nice side.

The British Film Industry

L.O to identify key issues within the British film industry.

L.O to evaluate whether the British film industry is more popular than others.

BBFC

The British Board Film Classification – The people that give certificates to films like U, PG, 12 etc. The ideal rating certificate is PG, PG12.

BFI

The British Film Institute

 
BAFTA

They give out BAFTA awards to actors actresses, film companies etc.

 
British Council – Government backed lead agency for films in the UK ensuring that the economic, cultural and educational aspects of film are effectively represented.

 
Big British Film companies – Film 4, Working title, Momentum Pictures, Pathe, Film Network.

All you need is three of these things to make it a British film:

·         A British Director

·         A British Producer

·         A Predominately British cast

·         A British production company

·         A subject matter that informs on the British experience

·         British identity defined by the BFI in sight and sound

·         Co – production with British input count as British films

Mainstream – Big summer blockbusters

Mainstream plus – Big summer blockbusters and smaller Hollywood films

Aficionados – Foreign language films with subtitles. The watchers can be encouraged to be more adventurous. Includes Sky etc.

Film Buffo1 – People who watch specialised films.

September is the time when you should put your films out in the cinema because summer is for the big Hollywood films and Christmas for classics.

 

 

The 7 Key Areas

Particular areas of representation that may be chosen are:

• Gender
• Age
• Ethnicity
• Sexuality
• Class and status
• Physical ability/disability
• Regional identity

Camera Shots, Angle, Movement, Composition

The 4 Key Areas

Shots: establishing shot, master shot, close-up, mid-shot, long shot, wide shot, two-shot, aerial shot, point of view shot, over the shoulder shot, and variations of these.

Angle: high angle, low angle, canted angle.

Movement: pan, tilt, track, dolly, crane, steadicam, hand-held, zoom, reverse zoom.

Composition: framing, rule of thirds, depth of field – deep and shallow focus, focus pulls.

Editing

Includes transition of image and sound – continuity and non-continuity systems.

Cutting: shot/reverse shot, eyeline match, graphic match, action match, jump cut, crosscutting, parallel editing, cutaway; insert.

Other transitions, dissolve, fade-in, fade-out, wipe, superimposition, long take, short take, slow motion, ellipsis and expansion of time, post-production, visual effects.

Sound

Soundtrack: score, incidental music, themes and stings, ambient sound.

Diegetic and non-diegetic sound; synchronous/asynchronous sound; sound effects; sound motif, sound bridge, dialogue, voiceover, mode of address/direct address, sound mixing, sound perspective.

Mise-en-Scène

Production design: location, studio, set design, costume and make-up, properties.

Lighting; colour design.