APRIL 2009: THE FREEDOM ISSUE M M MediaMagazine

edia agazine

Menglish and media centre issue 28 | aprilM 2009

Freedom from Hollywood Diploma students on freedom Sexual freedom TV drama – institutions and audiences Skins Cross-media platforms english andmedia centre Dead Set | issue 28|april 2009

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MediaMagazine is published by the English and Media Centre, a non-profit making organisation. editorial The Centre publishes a wide range of classroom materials and runs It’s that time of year again: it’s our last issue of the school year courses for teachers. If you’re and the exams are looming. We hope you’ll find plenty of support studying English at A Level, look out for your revision here. If you’re preparing for the OCR AS G322 for emagazine, also published by paper, crack it with our essential planning tips and guidance from the Centre. a principal examiner; Steph Hendry’s helpful summaries and well- The English and Media Centre focused examples of multiplatform media and the concepts which 18 Compton Terrace underpin them will also be useful, particularly for AQA AS students. London N1 2UN You can read two contrasting approaches to the textual analysis of TV drama Telephone: 020 7359 8080 which targets and represents young people, drawing on Skins and Sugar Rush; Fax: 020 7354 0133 and AS Film students must read Mark Ramey’s a powerful case study comparison Email for subscription enquiries: of two thematically linked films, which should provide inspiring ammunition for [email protected] FM2. And given that examiners across all specifications continually remind us of Managing Editor: Michael Simons the importance of using contemporary examples and references, Austin McHale’s analysis of Slumdog Millionaire could hardly be more topical or user-friendly. Editor: Jenny Grahame Many of these articles also touch on the ‘Freedom’ theme of this issue, which Editorial assistant/admin: our contributors have interpreted in diverse and interesting ways, from freedom Rebecca Scambler from Hollywood (Slumdog) to the limits of freedom represented in One Flew Over Design: Sam Sullivan (edition.co.uk) the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Shawshank Redemption. Sara Mills debates the ‘free Printed by S&G Group knowledge’ offered by Wikipedia, while Sean Kaye-Smith explores the dangerous ISSN: 1478-8616 freedoms of childhood in film, and Jerome Monahan compares two iconic photographs which represent the lack of freedom from very different perspectives. Cover image: from Slumdog Millionaire, courtesy of image.net And if you’re already considering your UCAS choices, do read Owen Davey’s thought- provoking reflections on his personal experiences of academic freedom and its limitations; styles of teaching and learning may not be at the forefront of your mind right now, but may make quite a bit of difference once you’re balancing workload, How to subscribe social life and pleasure as a first-year undergraduate… The other special feature of this issue is our selection of articles from Creative Four issues a year, published and Media Diploma students from Long Road, Cambridge. They came to visit us at September, December, late February MediaMag to see how the magazine is put together, and we gave them a free hand and late April. to come up with their own ‘Freedom’ articles, which range from online gaming to Centre print-only subscription: censorship, free running to music. Which is, of course, your cue: we really want to publish more of your work! Turn to the back page to see the MediaMag themes £29.95 for next year’s editions, with some ideas of the sorts of things you might be able to 2 year option: £49.90 contribute – or come up with your own interpretations. And bearing in mind the Centre website package: £79.95 long summer of freedom ahead of you (once you’ve dealt with those pesky exams, includes print magazine, full website that is) we hope to hear from you! access and an online PDF version of And finally…good wishes for your exams. the current issue. 2 year option: £139.90 Additional subscriptions for students, teachers or the library can be added to either the print-only subscription or the website package for £10 a year.

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2 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre MM contents

Front Page News GMTV Maria Brannigan Tank man and the The latest news, reviews describes a unique gold mine of Serra 04 and previews. 65 training scheme, and 57 Pelada Jerome Monahan some inspiring success evaluates the construction, BEYOND FREEDOM stories. impact and influence of TV drama – two iconic photographs FREEDOM SPECIAL institutions and representing the antithesis 06 audiences The Free culture – of freedom. essential guide to e-media comes cracking your G322 19 of age Wikipedia – summer exam paper – freedom of knowledge, straight from the mouth democratisation of of Principal Examiner information, or just a Jason Mazzocchi. dodgy, second-rate Cross-media encyclopaedia? Sara Mills investigates. platforms – an FREEDOM – THE DIPLOMA SECTION: overview Senior 10 Freedom from a selection of freedom-themed articles Examiner Steph Hendry Hollywood – from Level 3 Creative and Media talks you through what Slumdog Millionaire 21 Diploma students you need to know about Tiny budget, unknown media platforms, key cast, no Americans – Freedom of concepts, and how to and massive critical, movement Laurence approach them. commercial and Oscar 41 Smith on the delights of success. Austin McHale free running. Dead Set James Rose explains how Slumdog on Charlie Brooker’s The freedom of Millionaire thrived on its gruesomely satirical take music The power of music 14 freedom from Hollywood. on reality television. 43 to debate, critique and The limits of change minds, from Sam freedom Mark Chappell-Winnington. 26 Ramey finds powerful Freeform music connections in this FM2 Alexander Whitcomb case study comparing 46 explores the diversity and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s hybridity of a remarkable Nest and The Shawshank band. Redemption. Cartoon Need to know Freedom to play – about Depth of Field The freedom trap is online gaming 61 for your unseen textual Regular contributor Owen 48 hazardous to health? analysis? See it here – in 31 Davey reflects ruefully on David Pinchen debates the pictures! the limitations of a ‘free’ pros and cons. university curriculum in Skins – textual Digital Screen Arts. The c-word – analysis in action censoring the 62 A2 Media student The freedom of 49 media? It’s a tricky one. Kirsty Leslie analyses a childhood Sean Kaye- Tim Hodson explores the sequence from Skins to 34 Smith explores a range effectiveness of different explore its representation of powerful films seen forms of media regulation. of disability issues. through the innocent eyes of children. Sugar Rush – sexual freedom Andrea 52 Joyce celebrates the representation of teenage sexuality in Channel 4’s Sugar Rush, and explores its construction through close textual analysis.

english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 3 front page news

Coming to a and Sopena’s film sounds an his account of Stalin’s Credit crunch the last recession. It will be screen near you altogether more intelligent murder of Polish army media interesting to see whether officers in the forest of As usual, this summer treatment of the subject. A Ads in a recession his forecasting is accurate Katyn in 1939 – an atrocity, will be blockbuster time, group of mathematicians A recent Channel 4 News over the next few months. has to club together to uncovered and exploited with the studios hoping to report focused on the state ITV’s troubles solve problems set them by by the Nazis when they make huge bucks out of of the advertising industry ITV are facing big an adversary as the walls invaded Poland – has major ‘properties’ which will during this deep, dark hole troubles in the downturn; close in, finding out what attracted some excellent help bankroll everything of a recession. Advertising it’s just announced a £2.7 links them all in the process. reviews. To date it’s made else they do for the rest of legend Sir Frank Lowe has billion loss in 2008 and its (http://www.imdb.com/ $13 million in worldwide the year. That said, there are survived previous economic director Sir Michael Grade title/tt1016301/) box-office sales, but only always quirky releases to downturns, and gave his was recently spinning the $39,000 in America – look out for too. June 5th: Terminator: views about the kinds of line that ‘sure things are bad MediaMag wonders why... May 18th: Star Trek Salvation trends we should expect now, but come the return We’re boldly backtracking The trailer is portentous, July 17th: Harry Potter in such troubled times. of better economic times, to catch a glimpse of the soundtrack percussive, and the Half-Blood He suggested we won’t ITN will be well placed to Captain Kirk and his crew the director is Joseph Prince be seeing many glossy, benefit’. Now is the time in their youth. It’s a good McGinty Nichol aka McG, Given the importance triumphant bank ads; to monitor the impact of means of keeping some and big bucks have been to the profitability of UK instead, financial advertising the company’s problems, favourite characters alive thrown at it – not least films in 2007 of the last will be much more modest caused mainly by the and launching a new crop the acting talent which Harry Potter movie (and in tone: ‘come to us because migration of advertising of younger actors to play includes Christian Bale that’s based upon the we are safe and reliable’. away from terrestrial them. (http://www.imdb. as John Connor. Now it UK Film Council’s pretty There will be a big hike in channels. Three predictions: com/title/tt0796366/) is the people’s part to loose definition of a UK ads that seek to amuse us – • a steady drop in the the news ‘package’ carried May 29th: Fermat’s queue up and take the film), you can imagine the company’s drama output extracts from witty Hamlet Room (Habitacion de futureshock medicine in collective intake of breath – always the first thing to cigar and John Smith Bitter Fermat) their millions – at least in July when this movie hits go when money is scarce; commercials from the early Heartbeat The Saw franchise has that’s what Warner Bros are the screens. It’s Year 6 at future series of http:// 1990s; there will be space The Royal taken the idea of a group hoping they will do. ( Hogwarts and Voldemort’s and have been terminatorsalvation. for luxury and fantasy too, of apparent strangers power is on the increase! shelved warnerbros.com/ http://www.imdb.com/ but attached to surprising locked in a room and ) ( • the sale of assets title/tt0417741/synopsis) products, rather than truly inessential to the facing death unless they June 19th: Katyn expensive brands no one company’s main can find a ‘solution’ to their A new film from can afford – witness Haagen broadcasting activities – predicament in a very legendary Polish director Daz’s brilliant sexing-up of so it’s ‘bye-bye’ to Friends bloody direction. Piedrahita Andrjez Wajda is an event; ice-cream-eating during Reunited

4 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre • a steady amalgamation Newspaper woes 9.45 million last quarter – and hence the film gets teaching appearances. of regional news These are troubled times and its highest reach since pulled. As one teacher During the week you’ll also coverage as ITV’s local for British newspapers. In the start of 2003. points out: be creating a pitch for a news companies are the last 10 years, the UK’s Our consumption the only definite way new British film, including compressed and made dailies have lost some of online clips is going round it is to use music a poster and trailer. Your to cover bigger slices 2.25 million readers, and through the roof. According tracks that you can get school or college will of the country. (http:// ad revenues have fallen to internet-monitor the copyright holders’ need to support your news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ by about 20% – a very comScore, 30 million permission for – such application – visit http:// business/7922770.stm) unhealthy situation. It’s watched cached content as your own students’ www.villierspark.org.uk/ over four billion times last and ex-students’ and contact them for more Mags moving online predicted that two daily December. YouTube was bands. I have asked details (sb@villierspark. One response to difficult newspapers will go bust the big winner, pulling in my students to get org.uk). Online Media times is to go online. Recent this year. And ‘real’ paid-for almost 24 million unique signed disclaimers Studies extension activities web-based publishing newspapers are losing out users, reaching 77% of from the songwriters, are also available (http:// ventures to watch include: to their online equivalents, those who watched videos saying exactly what www.ygtactivities.org. • 10 Magazine – a new which we can access for online. Coming in a distant they are granting them uk/) on topics ranging from online fashion title free (mostly). In the past second were various BBC permission to do. Most Barbie to radio-generated with lots of information news content was ‘pushed’ websites, with almost 7 local bands are pleased panics to film noir trailers… about the marketplace at us for our consumption; million unique users, then to get a free video. and they’re updated each and its business model now we live in a ‘pull’ Microsoft and then eBay. half-term. in downloadable form: environment where we can An increase of 13% from Go on, go on, http://www.10magazine. be far more selective – and December 2007. (http:// go on...a Villiers Jerome Monahan is a freelance com/info.html it’s taking the newspapers news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/ Park G&T course writer who contributes to • Muso’s Guide – an time to adjust. (http:// hi/technology/newsid_ Places are still available MediaMagazine and the online guide to music news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/ 7874000/7874601.stm) on a week-long residential Guardian. and festivals: www. business/7872154.stm) media course at Villiers musosguide.com But the good news is Copyright – do Park Educational Trust • Chimp – a local ...on radio and online! the right thing! near Cambridge in July. Manchester publication One institution that The Media teachers’ The course is called providing arts, will weather the storm grapevine is worried that ‘Contemporary British Film’ entertainment and social will be BBC Radio 4’s YouTube et al are getting and it’s a chance to work commentary. The Big Today programme, which much hotter about chasing with a group of 24 6th Issue started in London seems to be increasing copyright violations and form media enthusiasts and spread, so perhaps listener figures for the deleting films that break from across the UK, in there’s a (virtual) Chimp station. RAJAR (Radio their rules. This is affecting a completely different coming to your neck of Joint Audience Research student output, especially environment, enhancing the woods. And if you live Ltd) reports that Radio 4 music videos posted on your media skills and in Manchester, you could has added half-a-million social networking sites building new contacts. contribute too: www. listeners and recorded its in the hope of getting It will be run by two chimpmagazine.co.uk highest share; it now has feedback; while the pictures tutors, with visiting media 9.81 million listeners – up may be the student’s, the specialists making guest from 9.29 million last year, soundtracks often are not,

english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 5 MM

exam tips for OCR AS Introduction marking of G322 exam scripts for January 2009. The exam for OCR AS Media Studies this My apologies to those students who are taking media studies summer is on Key Concepts in Media (G322). the paper on G323 ‘Radio Drama’; sadly, time and Here I would like to offer advice to students space is too short here for a discussion of the Not long to go now – this is your on how to answer the questions on ‘Television question on radio drama; this will be tackled in a Drama’ and ‘Institutions and Audiences’. This subsequent article. chance to hone your analytic skills article has been written with AS students in The structure of the exam with our essential guide to cracking mind, and addresses the needs of the summer’s The summer’s exam addresses two questions: examination. I hope this will enable you 1. The analysis of an unseen television drama your G322 summer exam paper – successfully to fulfil the paper’s requirements: extract and the ways it has constructed straight from the mouth of Principal Question 1 tests your knowledge and analysis particular aspects of representation. of television drama in relation to the concept Examiner Jason Mazzocchi. And 2. A response to a single set question on of representation; Question 2 tests your Institutions and Audiences, using the the keywords are…practise, focus, knowledge and understanding of media media industry case studies you have been institutions and audiences. I write with the examples and PEE. prepared for in class. knowledge not only of an experienced Media Studies teacher and writer, but also as the Principal Examiner who has just completed the

6 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre MM The exam is two hours long; an equal amount Preparing for the exam Exemplar instructions found on the of time should be spend on each question. By this time of year, OCR Media students across OCR specimen exam paper However, the first 30 minutes of the exam is the country will be preparing themselves to allocated to viewing and making notes on an answer this examination paper. By now, most, if • The extract will be screened four times. unseen extract from a British television drama. not all, teaching in schools and colleges will be • First screening: watch the extract; no notes This leaves you with 45 minutes to complete finished, and your Media teachers will be revising are to be made this time. a textual analysis of the extract in relation to a the key issues for the exam. Listen carefully to • Second screening: watch the extract and key aspect of representation, from one of the what your teachers are revising with you. They make notes. following: age, gender, ethnicity, social class and are the professionals who have taught you the • There will be a brief break for note-making. status, sexuality, physical ability/disability and course and the case studies you need to pass the • Third and fourth screening: watch the regional identity. exam. My advice here is in addition to what your extract and make notes. In the January 2009 unseen exam session the teachers are offering. text was from Monarch of the Glen (pictured x Use your study revision time. Do practise your throughout this article) and the key issue of Preparation for Question 1: note-making routine so you can record your representation was age. Candidates focused their key concepts in television observations at speed in the exam. You’ll be responses on the ways the key technical features drama asked to focus on the way a particular aspect of of camera shot, angle and composition, mise- x Do practise the key skill of textual analysis. representation is constructed via four technical en-scène, sound and editing constructed the You can do this at home by using drama features as listed in the following question: representation of age. Stronger candidates extracts recorded from television, the BBC The question were able to discuss all of the technical iPlayer, 4 on Demand and the ITV website. Answer the question below, with detailed features of the extract, and write in detail on x Do analyse short five-minute extracts and reference to specific examples from the the construction of the representation of age; no more because this is how long the extract in extract only: candidates who did less well were often limited the exam will be. Discuss the ways in which the extract by basic and descriptive responses. x Do watch the extract four times – this again constructs representations of age using For Question 2, you will have 45 minutes to follows the rubric of the exam paper. You the following: answer a question from a media area that you’ve cannot take notes during the first screening of • Camera shots, angles, movement and studied. You will have been taught quite specific the drama, but you may do so after this; after composition ‘case studies’ (that is, the use of detailed examples the second screening, there is a five-minute • Editing of media practice) from one of the following pause in the screening for you to take notes. media areas: film, music, newspaper, radio or • Sound video games. In January, students were asked: • Mise-en-scène Discuss the ways in which media product(s) x Don’t just describe – analyse! The skill of are produced and distributed to audiences, textual analysis is the main requirement within a media area, which you have studied. for Question 1. This involves not simply This required them to write an essay which identification and description, but also analysis examined the key concepts of media institutions of the technical features of television drama. and audiences. Each point you make requires Explanation, Analysis and Argument. You need to move beyond simply identifying the key technical aspects to applying and analysing them. To spell it out: • identify the technical convention being used • explain why this is so • consider what is being signified by a shot or sequence from the drama • link the technical analysis of the drama with the key concept of representation that is being tested.

english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 7 MM x Practise analysing representations. The x Mind your language – use the right terms! x Make use of key media concepts for this issue of representation needs to be clearly There are up to ten marks available for the question: for example cross-media, synergy, addressed in your response. This should be use of media terminology in Question 1 so digital initiatives and convergence. These quite obvious from the viewing of the extract. please ensure that you use the correct terms! concepts are central to the practices of media To prepare for this do ensure that you have One of the most common errors in the January institutions and you should have detailed practised analysing a range of examples of exam was reference to an ‘insert shot’ – not exemplification of each in relation to the representation: age, gender, ethnicity, social used in the sequence at all. For a detailed industry that you have studied. Do ensure in class and status, sexuality, physical ability/ list of vocabulary, use what your teacher has your revision notes that you have reference to disability and regional identity. Any one of provided. There is an extensive list available in these concepts with appropriate examples, and these could appear in the summer’s exam. Most the OCR specification, downloadable at http:// an evaluation of the media issues surrounding candidates in the January 2009 session coped www.ocr.org.uk/Data/publications/key_ them, often posed in terms of advantages and well with linking the technical construction of documents/AS_ALevel_GCE_Media_Studies_ disadvantages. the extract to the representation of age. Specification.pdf x Be contemporary with your use of examples. x Cover all features. You do also need to address If you use an historical example to help all of the technical features of the extract. In Preparation for Question 2 on illustrate a trend or point then make this the January exam session students felt really institutions and audiences explicit in your argument. By contemporary, I comfortable addressing the technical features This is an open-ended response question, mean in the last five years. Media institutions of camera, shot angle and composition and which requires you to address the question set in practices and audiences are in a constant state mise-en-scène, but were less confident in relation to the media area that you have studied. of change and development, in particular with discussing sound and editing. This meant The following issues are really important: the continuing development of media digital that responses were not as balanced or x Address the question that has been set! A technology. comprehensive in analysis as they could have common misunderstanding in January was x Get your facts right for the industry that been. By dealing with only camera shot and that students tended to write everything they you have studied and avoid guesswork. Do composition and mise-en-scène, many student knew about an industry, rather than focus on make sure that these facts are applied and are responses failed to cover all the technical the question set on production and distribution relevant to the media issues that you debate. features and so were not able to gain marks in practices. There is no need to use theory that is not the higher bands. x There are up to twenty marks available for the use of examples so use them! x Sound and editing. You must ensure that you analyse the use of sound and editing. In preparation for the exam do consider, for example, the use of music as mood setting, what technical aspects of sound are used and why. For the technical aspect of editing, move beyond simply identifying the use of transitions; do consider pace, match-on-action, the use of ellipsis and sound bridges in the construction of meaning. x Plan your structure carefully. You could choose to organise your answer chronologically, by analysing the extract as it progresses. Alternatively, you could address each of the technical features in turn, selecting appropriate examples to illustrate the points that you want to make. By using the latter structure you do ensure that you cover all of the technical aspects, including a discussion of representation.

8 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre MM relevant; it is far better to apply key concepts • steer away from offering an historical with the use of detailed examples. For example: overview or context to the question – this is • The issues raised by media ownership • in relation to the film industry, Slumdog not necessary and distribution in contemporary media Millionaire not only highlighted the success • start by using a statement which addresses practice. of Film Four, but also revealed the financial the question • The importance of cross-media stability/instability facing the UK film-making • keep the opening paragraph clear and convergence and synergy. industry during the current economic engaging, focusing on the question set recession • attempt to link the points that you want to • The digital technologies that have been • in 2006 the UK music industry was dominated make in terms of the question set introduced in recent years. by four major record companies, who owned a • signpost the points that you want to make at • The issues raised in the targeting of 76% share of the market. the beginning of each paragraph. Try adopting British national and local audiences by x Do allow enough time to answer Question a 3-point PEE structure: international and global institutions. 2. Work that is less than one and a half sides in 1. make a point • The ways in which the candidates’ own length is generally too short. Often students 2. support it with evidence experiences of media consumption illustrate do not fully use the time allowed in an exam 3. analyse and evaluate the point you make. This wider patterns and trends of audience to complete an answer, resulting in incomplete structure can help you provide details to your behaviour. answers that cannot be fully rewarded. Include exam response. an evaluation of the argument that you x Be selective – focus on the key issues. You Cover these points well in your revision but do make; and try not to make this too brief or will need to identify the key issues in the be selective in addressing the question set in the cursory a statement at the end of the essay. Do question. These are listed right in no particular exam. give an accurate summing up of your argument. order; one of the areas will be the focus of the x Examples are essential – again! Provide x Practise the structuring of your essay question set by the exam paper. plenty of detailed examples from your case response. The key to this is to: studies. In my school in North London, we • avoid lengthy introductions about what you look at the music industry and focus on the intend to say role of conglomerate music companies such as Sony/BMG, compared to EMI, a British national record company, and Essential Direct, an independent record label and distributor located in the East End of London. From a study of their institutional practices and audiences, my students have three detailed case studies to address the question – and of course they are also advised to add their own researched and independent examples. As with Question 1, it is also very important to use the correct media terminology (remember: up to 10 marks available). This does need revision, but you don’t need to define terms in the exam, just apply and debate them. And finally…top ten tips for the exam 1. Answer the question set. 2. Use plenty of selected examples for analysis in Question 1 and for Question 2 use contemporary examples. 3. For Question 1 do link analysis of the technical features of the extract to the key concept of representation. 4. Use the correct media terminology. 5. Time management of your essay responses is very important – incomplete answers are rarely awarded high marks. 6. Avoid lengthy contextual introductions. 7. Get the facts right for Question 2. 8. Ensure that points you make are explained and argued through. 9. Allow plenty of time for exam practice – you can do this at home. 10. Keep a key vocabulary list. And finally: good luck for the summer’s OCR AS exam!

Jason Mazzocchi is Head of Media at Acland Burghley School, North West London, and the Principal Examiner for OCR’s AS G322 unit.

english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 9 MM

If you’re preparing for AQA’s Mest Over the past few years the mass media has Media platforms undergone many dramatic changes. Media 1 and 2, you’ll know it’s all about These are the different technologies and Studies examinations have recently altered to formats used to present and distribute media media platforms and concepts. Senior reflect the way modern media texts are produced, products. marketed and accessed by audiences including Examiner Steph Hendry gives you technological innovations which are still Platform Forms include the lowdown on what you need to developing. As ever, Media Studies is a subject Broadcasting Film, television, radio know, and some useful examples to that is constantly adapting to stay up-to-date. Current issues and debates are often centred on Print Newspapers, magazines, demonstrate it. the way modern media institutions are using posters developing technologies and the subsequent alterations in audience behaviours and needs. e-media Web content, podcasts, In the past, media texts were often dealt with as streaming/downloadable individual products but it is now more relevant to video, mobile phone content, consider ‘media platforms’ rather than individual gaming ‘media texts’. This approach is applicable to all Many media texts that are created by the Awarding Bodies’ specifications but is specifically major institutions now appear across the three related to AQA’s AS modules: Mest1 ‘Investigating platforms. Institutions use the platforms to Media’ and Mest2 ‘Creating Media’. reach broad audiences, to offer texts in different formats and so provide a range of different potential gratifications for audiences.

10 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre MM Media concepts The Sun online shares many media language In your first year of study you will also be codes with its paper counterpart. Both use introduced to the media concepts. These are the same type of language in terms of simple the ideas that will enable you to engage formally lexis, short punchy sentences and a tendency with the way media texts are constructed. to use word play. Both have the same news The main concepts are: values as they prioritise entertainment. They • Media Language cover hard news stories but with limited detail • Audience and tend to focus on human interest stories, • Representation scandal and celebrity gossip. The tone of the • Institution writing and the types of stories covered are part … and also of the codes and conventions expected by The • Narrative Sun’s readership and it is important that these • Genre expectations are met within each platform. The • Ideology Sun’s online edition has the capacity to use Media texts need to be considered across the video to provide additional information and media platforms using the media concepts to can include reader comments, allowing more identify how and why institutions use a mixture interactivity than The Sun in its traditional of broadcast media, print media and e-media to format. The online edition is, therefore, construct related texts. more dynamic, more up to date and can be Issues to consider include: seen to offer its audience more in terms of • how the texts interrelate to create a entertainment and information than the paper- multiplatform text based version. Of course, being online it’s not • how each text is constructed (in terms of Media as portable as the newspaper itself. Although Language, Narrative, use of Genre codes and the increase in mobile technologies does mean Representations) more people are able to access The Sun online • how the texts communicate ideas and values whilst out and about, mobile internet hardware (ideologies) is expensive when compared to the cover price • how the texts benefit the producing institutions of the paper itself. • how institutions use different platforms to increase the potential target market/audience Institution for a text When looking at multiplatform texts it is • how different platforms provide different important to consider the function of the texts audience experiences, activities and constructed. Multiplatform texts often act as pleasures. promotional material for each other and so Platforms and media concepts you should try to work out how the texts work Media language together to generate income. Each different platform and form uses its Print is still the primary platform for The own media language codes which are chosen Sun but the online edition is becoming specifically to appeal to the audience, meet increasingly important in terms of generating the specified intentions of the text, identify the advertising revenue, alternative sources of genre and construct a narrative. Media language income and developing reader/browser choices take the expectations of the audience loyalty. Some online editions of print-based into account and the way that people/places/ media offers ‘tasters’ of stories and features ideas etc. are to be represented. which can only be accessed by buying the e-media tends to use a combination of print, paper-based edition. In this way, web editions moving-image and sound-based media language act as marketing for the paper-based versions depending on the technology used and the and, whilst being accessible and entertaining, function of the text. encourage the audience to purchase the primary platform version.

Recently film and television production companies have seen the potential in creating massive online marketing campaigns which act to: • spread the word about the primary platform, generate interest by selective revealing of images and information • encourage audience loyalty through long term involvement in online activities which include games, chat rooms and competitions • provide additional narrative information about characters and related events.

english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 11 MM Audience Some institutional concepts In this cross-platform approach, audiences Horizontal integration need to be considered in a number of ways: • How do the texts create different audience A term used to describe the business gratifications? practice of drawing together different • What different types of audience activity are production processes to produce related texts. enabled by the range of texts available? For example: Sony create a game, publish • How do the audiences access the texts? Does a magazine which reviews the game, retails this alter the way they interact with them? a special price package which ships the • Are different audiences targeted across the game with new PS3s, uses a Sony recording platforms? company artist to provide the soundtrack • Are audiences involved in the construction of to the game (which is released for sale) texts? and release a related film via Sony Pictures • What type of audience feedback is possible in Entertainment. the different platforms? Here Sony maximises the potential profit • How are the audience members encouraged to from one media text and many parts of the interact with each other? company benefit. In addition, the potential Audiences are not all the same; as with any audience base is increased. Whilst the game other media text, the reasons why people may have a large market, other audiences can access texts and the way they make use of them be created who may not like the game but vary. Some texts provide information, others who like the music that is used or who want to entertainment and in some cases they are simply see the film. promotional. Most texts will probably offer a Vertical integration combination of all these elements, but some parts of a multiplatform text may target specific Large media corporations benefit audience groups with particular gratification enormously if they own all the businesses needs. involved in the production process of their products from creation to construction, Institution as audience/ distribution and retail. This is called vertical audience as institution integration. (If you look up Sony on Some multiplatform texts include material Wikipedia you will get an idea of the extent of constructed by audience members (UGC or their business interests.) User Generated Content). This leads to an Symbiosis interesting debate on the way new media are being used by audiences, and the position of A term used to describe the way different traditional media institutions in all this. Debates institutions/businesses work together to are already underway with some commentators promote a range of related products. seeing e-media as having a democratising For example: Total Film buys the exclusive effect where audiences have some control over rights to a ‘behind the scenes’ look at the media production and, therefore, the large media making of the film (of the game above) and industries have less. You may want to consider creates a feature article; Hasbro buys the how much control you feel audiences may or may licence for action figures based on the film or not have. Given the fact that these are early days game’s characters, W.H. Smith buys the rights in multiplatform media, there are no ‘right’ ways to sell stationery using the product’s logo, to think about this. You should evaluate the texts and Burger King has a special burger named you access and consider these issues for yourself. after the Sony product. Each company acts to promote not only the media product but the For example: audiences have always been other companies too. able to communicate with newspapers. For many years The Sun has taken letters from Horizontal integration and viral readers and the audience’s responses and marketing opinions have been printed in ‘letters to the Multiplatform texts add to the possibilities editor’ features. However, with the older for business to get involved in horizontal technologies this communication from and integration as websites can be created by a between readers was slow. The Sun online marketing team to raise more awareness of the offers readers the chance to comment on a product. Similarly more outlets for symbiotic story immediately. The readers’ comments are marketing and conventional advertising are published online below the story itself or in available through advertising placement on forums which the paper sets up to encourage the web and with tie-ins to other companies’ discussion and debate. Audiences find it easy websites. Good promotion will create interest to interact with the paper and each other in which may be translated into web chatter and this way and the newspaper is able quickly to a process of viral marketing may begin where judge audience responses to a particular story the audiences spread the word about the or issue. product and create more interest in the text or its offshoots.

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Genre, narrative and ideology • YouTube and other e-media facilities have Each individual product within a been credited with generating and maintaining multiplatform text can be analysed for the way high interest in the 2008 American election as it follows or subverts genre conventions, how interested audience members found they could representations are created and used, how access more information about candidates and narrative is used to engage the audience and debates than through traditional media sources the ideological perspectives it communicates. It • print-based newspapers are losing readers to is worth thinking about how the combination of free internet news providers which is altering individual texts creates larger narratives and how the way newspapers do business; some analysts the repetition of representations and ideologies think that newspapers will soon be a dying across texts and platforms acts to reinforce and format naturalise certain ideas. • television broadcasters are investing in On Demand technology as television audiences no Ongoing and future debates longer watch scheduled television in the way The rise in e-media and other technologies they did just a few years ago. has led to questions about how we define what This all makes it a very interesting time for a media text is. Traditionally, a media text is students of the media and your cross-platform considered to be a text that is created by a media case study will enable you to look closely at the institution and distributed to a wide audience way the modern media is responding to these using broadcast or print technologies. In the changes. You will need to consider for yourself past the production of media texts needed the whether you feel these changes are positive support of media industries as accessing the or negative. One thing is for sure, the days of technologies required to create and distribute thinking about a text as an individual cultural it to a large audience relied on huge financial artefact are passing, and an understanding of backing. In the modern media age you are able to the cross-platform nature of the media is now create media texts which can be distributed to a essential. wide audience using e-media technologies. Using this definition, your Facebook or MySpace page Steph Hendry is a Lecturer in Media Studies at Runshaw could be defined as a media text. Social network College, Lancashire. She is a Senior Examiner, freelance sites, Twitter, YouTube videos, blogs, podcasts writer and trainer. etc. are used both by individuals and institutions to communicate to a potentially large audience. Audiences can read about a current news story in a mass media online ‘publication’ such as the Guardian online or Sky News, but they can also read a blog on the same topic and watch videos from different sources, both amateur and professional, which provide different perspectives on the story. Currently the impact of all these media sources is being researched and analysed. Traditional media industries are working hard to integrate e-media into their business models and more and more people are involved online in either creating media texts or accessing non-traditional types of media. The long term impact is still to be seen. For example: • there is currently talk of some of the major media groups creating subscription type services which will act as ‘channels’ on the web, similar to those on television

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Zombies in the Big Brother house? Who are the mindless undead and who are the housemates? And why is Davina eating one of the contestants? James Rose investigates Charlie Brooker’s satirical take on Reality Television, Dead Set.

14 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre MM Written by regular Guardian columnist Charlie Brooker, Dead Set is a five-part horror serial aired over consecutive nights on E4 (the last episode being broadcast on Halloween) during 2008. Set in contemporary Britain, the narrative concerns a zombie invasion which traps the housemates of Big Brother and some of the production crew in the Big Brother house. As a secure location – high perimeter fence, barbed wire and CCTV monitoring – the house offers the characters relative safety from the cannibalistic undead. But, as with all zombie narratives, arguments break out and the lack of trust soon allows the undead the opportunity to break in and devour those who cross their path. Unsurprisingly, Brooker is a self-confessed zombie fanatic. Such is the extent of this that Dead Set functions like a feature-length film (a quality enhanced by the high production values) and features all the prerequisite moments from zombie cinema – mainly the undead getting their heads either shot or smashed open in grotesquely gory detail. Integrated into this are Brooker’s signature sense of satirical humour and a series of verbal and visual homages to the grandfather of zombie cinema, George A. Romero. George A. Romero Born in 1940 in the Bronx, New York City, George Andrew Romero is the director of the seminal Night of the Living Dead (1968). As the keystone film of modern horror cinema, Night of Romero’s template is basically a siege the Living Dead defined the parameters for what narrative: trapped within a claustrophobic the horror film could both be and do in terms of environment, the disparate characters provide entertainment and critical content. The film was the opportunity for social critique to take a success upon its initial release and its sustained place, an element that effectively turns the popularity with audiences and critics would small group of survivors into a microcosm encourage Romero to make a sequel, Dawn of of contemporary society. Throughout the the Dead (1978) as well as three other Dead films Dead films Romero has commented upon (Day of the Dead [1985], Land of the Dead [2005] feminism, racism, the role of the family and, and Diary of the Dead [2007]). Whilst the amount more recently, the War on Terror and the of explicit gore increased with each film, so too questionable role the media plays in our did the social and political subtexts creating a understanding of global events. small body of work that positions Romero as one of the most influential and critically respected The (dead) set directors of contemporary American cinema. Charlie Brooker’s Dead Set (2008) takes As groundbreaking as Night of the Living the generic template defined by Romero and Dead was in terms of content, Romero also applies it to what is becoming a British televisual defined the narrative template, tropes and institution, Big Brother. An Eviction Night mythology for zombie films for subsequent broadcast is interrupted by a national emergency generations of film-makers. For some reason transmission – the dead are coming back to life the dead are returning to life. They appear as and are attacking and eating the living. As the shambling beings whose sole desire is the pursuit population struggles to defend itself against of warm flesh. Their vast numbers make escape the undead, the Big Brother contestants are impossible. Being already dead, the zombie is oblivious to the events that are taking place difficult to kill, the only way being to destroy their outside their secure and protected ‘home’. As brain. Whilst the number of zombies increases, the series unfolds, the reality of the situation is the few remaining survivors gather together revealed to the contestants through Kelly (Jamie and barricade themselves in what they believe Winstone), the production company’s runner will be a secure location. As the zombies gather who has managed to survive and has gained outside, the survivors soon begin to bicker and access to the house. Not quite believing her, argue, becoming just as much a threat to each one of the contestants unwittingly lets a zombie other as the undead. Romero usually concluded into the house which then bites one of the his films with a depressing stalemate in which contestants, Angel (Chizzy Akudolu). From there the zombies break into the fortified space on the already fraying relationships amongst and consume most of the survivors. Those that the housemates are put under further pressure survive barely escape and end the film running as they argue and bicker their way through the from the undead in a desperate attempt to find increasingly apocalyptic situation. somewhere safe.

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Brooker takes advantage of this scenario and the middle-aged intellectual, Pippa (Kathleen As the narrative unfolds, Brooker satirises Big gleefully delves into the gory potential zombies McDermott), a young woman who does not Brother and the stereotypes it has seemingly offer as characters are wounded, shot dead or know whether toes have bones in them or generated for itself: the contestants, in their eaten alive, while others have their throats torn not, the handsome Northerner Mark (Warren thirst for fame, mistakenly interpret the screams out or have their heads crushed, repeatedly Brown) who is, predictably, sleeping with his of the dying public as screams of adoration; stabbed or chopped off in brutal and bloody female counterpart, the beautiful Veronica Davina, the mouthpiece for the show, has her detail. While these images are shocking, they are (Beth Cordingly), loud-mouthed Angel and the throat torn out, successfully silencing her. When balanced by the critical and satirical potential transvestite Grayson (Raj Ghatak). Finally there Kelly has finally convinced the contestants of the the scenario also offers. As a consequence, is Space (Adam Deacon), a young South London zombie outbreak, they go up onto the house Dead Set can be viewed as a well-written, geezer. The inevitability of the arguments (and roof and look at the carnage: all Veronica can violent and bloody satire on reality television their inevitable content) is already implied in manage is ‘Does this mean we are not on telly and the voyeuristic public that validates it. these brief descriptions: the intellectual will anymore?’ Later, when Kelly, Mark and Space go be astounded by the others’ stupidity, and out of the compound to look for medicine and Satire homophobia and racism will more than likely supplies, Mark finds a copy of Heat magazine: Big Brother’s central premise is to lock a group manifest itself. No way! Check it out! I’m on the cover! of strangers in a confined space and watch their Thrown into the Big Brother house alongside His excitement is soon quelled when he reads lives unfold. Without the distractions of work, the bickering contestants are two of the the strap lines: television and computers, the contestants are programme’s staff, Kelly and Patrick (Andy Marky: The Truth. Rubbish in bed, not as forced into conversation. Under such pressures Nyman), and an extended cameo by Davina funny as he thinks and his mates don’t even arguments quickly develop. It is not difficult to McCall. Whilst McCall simply plays herself, the like him see the connection Brooker makes between Big fictional characters are given specific roles to While Mark complains about these apparent Brother and Romero’s zombie film template: a play in the unfolding attempt to survive: Kelly is lies, Space is being confronted by two policemen group of strangers trapped in an enclosed space level-headed and so not only emerges as the who are trying to arrest him for looting. turn on each other instead of working together leader of the group but also acts as the voice Whilst pointing their guns at him one of them to survive. of reason throughout whilst Patrick is ruthless, recognises him and tells him ‘do you know you’re To amplify this quality, Brooker populates selfish and arrogant. His approach to leadership shorter in real life?’. The allure of celebrity, his Big Brother house with a collection of is simply to use the others to save himself while it would seem, can even endure a zombie stereotypical contestants: Joplin (Kevin Eldon), Kelly strives to save the group as much as herself. apocalypse.

16 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre MM While it would seem that Brooker is being critical of Big Brother and its contestants, he also inverts the criticism and uses the characters’ stereotypes to aid in the survival plan: Grayson reveals himself to be a trained charge-nurse, effectively acting as the doctor for those that are injured, Space continually uses his common sense to help work out a survival plan and Mark, the typical white male hero, takes up a gun and defends his fellow contestants. It would seem, if they just stopped arguing, they would actually have a strong chance of surviving this apocalypse. Reality television Given Dead Set is based upon the current trend of reality television, it is not surprising that Brooker has invested his narrative with an immense sense of realism. The most obvious manifestation of the real is the appearance of Davina McCall and the presence of previous Big Brother contestants (including Eugene Sully, Kinga Karolczak, Ziggy Lichman, Brian Belo and Makosi Musambasi). This use of recognisable, real-world elements extended into the filming itself: Brooker has stated that ‘we filmed outside the [Big Brother] house on the night Belinda was evicted…So before she came out, we ‘evicted’ a member of our cast.’ Although the exterior of the house and the crowds that gather outside it were real, the interiors were not. As Brooker has commented, this was partly because the house was being fitted for Big Brother 9 and partly because the House itself needed to be bigger in order to fit the production crew inside whilst filming. Regardless of this shift from reality to the Dead Set production set, the use of recognisable people and exterior locations creates an intertextual link between the real Big Brother and Dead Set’s fictional counterpart, creating a heightened sense of verisimilitude for the series. While most zombie films are preoccupied with depicting violence, gore and cannibalistic acts to a shocking degree, Brooker’s sense of realism lends itself to both the violent and mundane aspects of survival: having killed a zombie by smashing open its head with a fire extinguisher, Kelly proceeds to move the body out of the Big Brother house and returns with a dustpan and brush so she can clean up the remaining bits of pulped brain and shattered skull. It is a bizarre moment, functioning as if Kelly is merely cleaning up an accidentally spilt glass of wine before it stains the carpet, a quality emphasised by the fact that they are in the Big Brother house, that parody of the domestic living space. Other violent instances occur, most notably when Veronica repeatedly stabs the undead Grayson in the head; the rage with which she does this expresses the anger she felt for him when he was alive. Contrasting these moments of sheer brutality are the mundane instances typified by the scene in which Patrick, trapped in an ante-room by the zombified Davina, uses a wastepaper basket as a toilet. Like Kelly cleaning up the splattered brains, this is another moment of the domestic intruding into the horror of the situation. Later on, as the series draws to a close, it is Patrick’s cynical sense of reality that allows him to devise an escape plan, one which involves butchering

english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 17 MM the bodies of the dead to feed to the zombie soulless zombies transfixed by the television horde. In a brief and graphic scene, Patrick are us. We, the viewing public, are the zombies carves away at the bodies of Angel and Grayson, who sit mesmerised in front of our television sets slicing away lumps of flesh and dropping them every night, quietly and passively transfixed by into a bucket and so merging the sometimes the broadcast image. As one of the characters extreme needs of survival with barbarity. Such in Romero’s Dawn of the Dead says as he looks a combination is a familiar trope within zombie down at the zombie masses: cinema, its occurrence raising questions about They are us, that’s all. the characters and their ethics, suggesting James Rose is a freelance writer in Film and Media Studies, that in order to survive extreme situations specialising in Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction. one has to take extreme action. Follow it up The dead (set) Dead Set website: http://www.e4/deadset/ Brooker ends Dead Set in true Romero Brooker, Charlie: Screen Burn (Faber and Faber, fashion: the zombies break into the compound 2004) through the stupidity of one of the group and Brooker, Charlie: Dawn of the Dumb: quickly attack the contestants. Patrick, in typical Dispatches from the Idiotic Frontline (Faber and fashion, screams offensive abuse at the zombies Faber, 2007) as they rip open his stomach and tear out his intestines. Mark, Pippa, Veronica and Space all Editor’s note end up bitten. Only Kelly remains unharmed and Charlie Brooker’s Screenwipe series, screened locked in the relative safety of the Diary Room. on BBC3 and later repeated on BBC2, are In a last attempt to escape, Kelly charges out and amongst the best critiques of TV culture you will into the mass of zombies. The series concludes ever see. As one blogger comments: with all the contestants as zombies. Inside, Kelly, I’d do away with Media Studies altogether. her eyes blank with infection, stares blankly Screenwipe may not cover the entire up at one of the CCTV cameras. Her image curriculum – but it tells you everything you is transmitted to all the other televisions need to know. in the complex, attracting the attention of Andrew Goldie, London the other zombies. They stumble over to the Images from Dead Set courtesy of C4 extra.net press site. screens and stare at Kelly. The closing image is that of zombies watching zombies, the dead watching the dead. The potential meaning of this final image is hardly subtle: the lifeless,

Who is Charlie Brooker? Born on 3rd March 1971, Charlie Brooker is well-established writer, columnist and broadcaster. He is known for his sarcastic and satirical humour, one that is skewered with expletives and a healthy amount of pessimism. Alongside his work as a writer he is also one of the four creative directors of Zeppotron, a production company that specialises in comedy programmes (including 8 Out of 10 Cats, Nathan Barley, The Law of the Playground and Dead Set). His work regularly appears in the Guardian Guide, where he writes the Screen Burn column, a one-page tirade in which Brooker critiques the past or forthcoming week’s television. Before writing Dead Set, Brooker worked on various comedy programmes including Chris Morris’s Brass Eye and Nathan Barley.

18 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre free culture: e-media comes of age

The internet was Just a glorified TV of information were also to every single person on Alex Schenck, 19, volunteer channel? the producers of that the planet in their own site administrator, New one of the most In 1999, Sir Tim Berners- information. On social language. York Times, 2006 important innovations Lee, the inventor of the networking sites, on YouTube Its content is written Vandalism and World Wide Web looked back and other sites which rely on and edited entirely by misinformation of the 20th century, on the previous decade and UGC and on wikis this vision volunteers, working Robbie Williams eats and now in the 21st complained: is finally coming true. Here, collaboratively. Therefore hamsters; Beckham is a century it will take I wanted the Web to be the divide between institution there are no ‘experts’ and Chinese goalkeeper from what I call an interactive and audience is slowly being no centralised control over the 18th century. One of the interactivity to new space where everybody broken down. what is published in the downsides of open editing levels. Forget about can edit. And I started An encyclopaedia, encyclopaedia. The role of the is the regular vandalism or saying ‘interactive,’ not an experiment in institutional gatekeeper, deliberate misinformation TV on-demand and and then I read in the democracy who can privilege some that occurs. Above are just MSN – it’s UGC, blogs media that the Web was Of all the wikis, Wikipedia knowledge, and some points two recent instances of great because it was is the best known, but the of view – the role that has vandalism. In fact some and wikis that the ‘interactive,’ meaning ideas behind it are true typically worked in favour of people see it as the pleasure internet was made you could click. This was for all wikis. James Wales, the wealthy and thus aided of the site regularly to amend not what I meant by the founder of Wikipedia, hegemony – may finally be entries. More amusing for… interactivity. often emphasises that it is open to challenge. changes can be found in Watching re-runs of TV ‘an encyclopaedia, not an Of course, this may just Chittenden’s article (Sunday programmes, downloading experiment in democracy’. mean that another set of Times, 2006). Such ‘vandalism’ films and music, reading news Wikipedia may, however, viewpoints is privileged is usually discovered and and looking up information represent a change in the instead – the institution changed within a few hours. on static websites is only the way culture is produced and becomes dominated by As wikis retain a copy of all start of e-media’s journey. accessed. young techy types: previous versions, reverting What Berners-Lee really Wikipedia aims to: One of the running jokes or rolling back to a previous, wanted was the internet create and distribute is that there are better un-‘vandalised’ entry is to be the place where a multilingual free articles on Pokémon relatively straightforward. readers were also writers encyclopaedia of the than on certain kinds of Is Wikipedia valid? and where the consumers highest possible quality science. Does the institution lose its credibility if it has amateurs rather than experts producing it? In her article ‘The Neutrality of this Article is Disputed – Inside Wikimania 2006’ (August 2006), Katherine Mangu-Ward quotes Weinberger as saying: If you open up a copy of Britannica you are right to believe that what you read is credible. Something gets credibility simply by being in Britannica, though it is not necessarily true. If you open up Wikipedia randomly, what you see is not credible. Simply being there doesn’t give you some sort of probabilistic credibility. However, Weinberger continues by suggesting that because ‘Wikipedia is not shy about putting up notices about its own fallibility’ it paradoxically becomes more credible. The credibility of the institution

english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 19 lies in its acceptance that not On the downside, While this is likely References Follow it up all knowledge is necessarily whatever its potential for a to perpetuate existing true, and in the reduction of revolutionary change in the privileges and biases, there Katherine Mangu-Ward’s Bourdieu’s ideas of cultural barriers between audience distribution of, and access to, is certainly a shift in terms web article ‘The Neutrality capital; and issues around and institution. cultural capital, wikis are still of the generational bias, of this Article is Disputed ‘free culture’ and ‘open Free culture dominated by those with with knowledge lying in – Inside Wikimania 2006’ source culture.’ Not sure The ‘free culture’ established and easy access the hands of the younger (August 2006. See: http:// what these are? Look in movement seeks to distribute to technology – currently generation, and increasingly www.reason.com/news/ Wikipedia! knowledge more freely and still America, Europe and accessible to those for show/36969.html) widely, and overlaps with parts of Asia, and often the whom the great libraries and Cartoon: © Neil Paddison, 2009. Noam Cohen’s article in The wikis’ anti-centralisation people within those societies built infrastructure are not New York Times, ‘In Egypt, ethos wherein we can all be for whom education and available, or are culturally a Thirst for Technology and experts. In a small way, all technology is most easily unapproachable. Noam Progress’ (July 2008. See: UGC is part of this. The home available. Jimmy Wales, Cohen, writing in The New http://www.nytimes. videos that make it onto the the founder of Wikipedia, York Times, says: com/ 2008/07/21/ news privilege proximity suggests: In Egypt, Wikipedia is business/media/21link. and immediacy over skill Wikipedia versions are more than a hobby. html) and professionalism in currently available for Cohen quotes Ahmad recording news images, even only 250 of the world’s Belal, a 23-year-old medical Maurice Chittenden’s The though the news providers 7,000 languages. student who came from Cairo Sunday Times article still act as gatekeepers and Establishing Wikipedias to attend the ‘Wikimania’ ‘Comedy of errors hits controllers. in more African conference, saying: the world of Wikipedia’ Blogs are another aspect of languages will enable For Egyptians the visa (February 2006. See: http:// ‘free culture’ or ‘open source’ speakers of those procedure for any country www.timesonline. culture. While corporations, languages to more is very difficult. You need co.uk/tol/news/uk/ political campaigns and actively participate in a visa to visit any country article730025.ece) other formal institutions have the global exchange of in the world. Facebook Robert Levine’s article begun using these tools to knowledge. Additionally, and Wikipedia connect us in The New York Times distribute information, many it may, in a small way, to the outside. ‘The Many Voices of blogs are used by individuals help to preserve those So, more than just a dodgy, Wikipedia, Heard in One for personal expression, languages. second-rate encyclopaedia, Place’ (August 2006. See: political organising, and Connecting us to the Wikipedia could be the first http://www.nytimes. socialising. Blogs allow other outside step on the long road to com/2006/08/07/ voices to be widely heard and Imagine a world in which equality and freedom. technology/07wiki.html) even to become as influential every single person on as those of the ‘experts.’ In the planet is given free Sara Mills teaches Media at the recent US election, non- access to the sum of all Helston Community College, corporate blogs played an human knowledge. That’s Cornwall and is an AQA increasingly important role in what we’re doing. examiner. shaping mainstream public Wales, 2004 interview opinion.

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Tiny budget, unknown cast, no London. February. Slumdog Millionaire has Media language just swooped through the grey slush of the West Americans – and massive critical, The media language of the film is indicated in End in a blaze of colour and sound to scoop the poster, a kaleidoscope of energy and colour. commercial and Oscar success. seven BAFTA awards, including Best Film and Best Against an impressionistic cityscape of blurred Director and an extraordinary eight Oscars. Yet Austin McHale explains how neon lighting, a boy and a girl burst through the this film does not fit the template of Hollywood darkness, both in motion but facing opposite Slumdog Millionaire thrived on its success. There are no American accents, few ways. Anxiety but also hope is clear in their tense freedom from Hollywood. special effects and no big stars. It is the antithesis expressions. The lettering of the title is ragged, of glamour – a climactic sequence involves the uneven, lowercase, progressing from the red of hero, a Mumbai slum kid, diving through a cesspit danger to the yellow of hope. In the foreground aand emerging covered in very realistic excrement is the familiar graphic design of a question from (i(in fact peanut butter and chocolate), all to get the quiz show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? a signed photograph of a Bollywood actor. Yet doubling as the tag line, ‘What does it take to find it has achieved the Holy Grail of cinema – made a lost love?’. The theme and narrative are outlined, cheaply, it appeals to many different audiences, the fragmented urban, visual style powerfully has become a critical and popular success and is established. set to make huge profits. How has a low budget The cinematography of the film is unusual for British film reconciled these opposites without an Oscar contender. The Mumbai street scenes selling its soul? Perhaps our old friend MIGRAIN, are filmed with a kinetic energy and a gritty inducer of headaches to generations of Media realism which recalls documentary rather than Students, can offer us a way in. Hollywood – or Bollywood – studio glamour.

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This look is achieved through the use of small, stage, because Mumbai streets are so loud. very manoeuvrable digital video cameras However, to Danny Boyle Mumbai street sounds and on occasion the stuttering images of still were essential signifiers of the slums, so cameras at 11 frames per second, far slower the diegetic sounds stayed. The non-diegetic than normal film camera speed. This key artistic musical score was just as important, aiming at decision was to some extent forced on the film a fusion of styles to engage Western as well crew. The influence of mainstream Indian cinema as Indian audiences. The basic soundtrack was is so pervasive in Mumbai that filming in the composed by the famous Bollywood musician slums with traditional large cameras would have A.R. Rahman, but it was overlaid by an urban encouraged stylised Bollywood moves rather Hip-Hop and Rap track prominently featuring than realistic behaviour, so the film-makers the British Sri-Lankan MIA, reflecting the eclectic had to disguise themselves as tourists and film ‘masala’ mixture both of Mumbai and of unobserved to achieve the naturalism that they Western cities. wanted. Institutional perspectives Sound – non-Bollywood style Institutionally Slumdog Millionaire is a Another significant aspect of media language fascinating case study. It was made for 13 million is sound, 70% of the impact of a film according to dollars, a tiny sum compared with the 167 director Danny Boyle. As with visual language, million dollars of Oscar rival The Curious Case of creative decisions in this area involved a radical Benjamin Button, largely raised via the French departure from the Bollywood norm. Bollywood and British production companies Pathé and films are made largely on sound stages, with Film4. For a film with an almost entirely Indian music and ambient noise dubbed on at a later cast and no stars apart from the Bollywood Indian actor Anil Kapoor, even this budget would have been a challenge to raise without Boyle’s track record as the director of a series of low budget, profitable and critically successful films such as Trainspotting, 28 Days Later and Millions. Casting threw up an unusual problem. Boyle was committed to casting locally, but every actor with Bollywood ambitions was implausibly ‘buff’ for a slumdog, having worked out every day in the approved Bollywood manner. Boyle discussed this with his 17-year-old daughter one evening and received the following piece of succinct advice, ‘If you want a loser, have a look at Skins!’ Hence the inspired casting of Dev Patel, who can project vulnerability as well as determination, and whose slow, shy smile is one of the delights of the film. Slumdog Millionaire, like all Danny Boyle’s films, is difficult to pigeonhole in generic terms. It is a hybrid of gritty realism and aspiration, of drama documentary and love story. ‘Feelgood’, with its connotations of cliché and stereotype, is a description understandably resisted by Boyle, but despite the poverty, the child torture and the prostitution, it is indisputably an uplifting film.

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Genre connections Slumdog Millionaire’s representation of Mumbai is starkly different from two familiar though opposite stereotypes. One is the glamorous dreamworld of Bollywood, in which no-one is poor (for long, at least) and in which characters more likely to be seen dancing on a Swiss mountain or a Scottish glen than in a Mumbai railway station. The other is the English tabloid newspaper nightmare of teeming, unsanitary ghettoes populated by passive recipients of Western charity, where the only growth industries are begging, prostitution and terrorism. By contrast the slumdogs of the film are resourceful, energetic and independent citizens of one of the world’s great cities – 20 million and growing. This positive ideology, that poverty and apathy can be conquered by communal celebration, is exemplified in the film’s final sequence. As the credits roll, Dev Patel and co-star Frieda Pinto are joined by what appears to be the whole of Mumbai in an exuberant dance number. The location is the city’s main railway station, the Chapatri Shivaji Terminus, host to a thriving sub-culture of recent rural immigrants, the main artery of Mumbai. It was also one of the sites of a murderous terrorist attack last November which made headlines internationally. Despite the film sequence being shot many months before, it is being seen in India as a positive counterbalance to the images of a burning, blood-soaked Mumbai which led the TV news bulletins worldwide. Audience and ideology This iconic sequence appeals to many different audiences. It can be seen as the film’s one major concession to Bollywood, an explosion of sound and spectacle which is likely to attract a mainstream Indian audience. The energy of the youthful dancers, the frequent close-ups of the familiar face of Dev Patel and the Hip-Hop/ Bollywood fusion of the soundtrack will hold a Western audience, particularly the sought- after demographic of 16-25 with its high level of disposable income. Finally the aspirational ideology, the community’s refusal to be defined by the squalor of the slums, their commitment

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to celebration, growth and change, intersects term implying that Mumbai citizens are less than with the narrative arc of classic Hollywood human, when Danny Boyle’s preferred meaning cinema, in which seemingly impossible obstacles is clearly intended to be an echo of ‘underdog’, are overcome in order to fulfil a dream. This is evoking connotations of bravery, resilience attractive to mainstream Western media outlets. and moral justification. To me, these spectacular misreadings are travesties of the film’s ideological Narrative structure standpoints. Indeed, cynical observers have seen This dream, however, is not the traditional them as evidence of a ‘dirty tricks’ campaign, American Dream. Comfort and wealth are orchestrated by unscrupulous publicists of rival apparently promised by the film’s narrative films in the run-up to the Oscars. Large amounts structure, cleverly built around the cumulative of money have been invested, for example, in the questions of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? effects-laden Brangelina vehicle The Curious Case which, remarkably, all relate to incidents in Jamal of Benjamin Button (five years in the making and Malik’s (Dev Patel’s) life. However, this apparent 13 times the cost of Slumdog Millionaire), and of endorsement of a crudely materialist ideology is course the best short-cut to recouping costs and skilfully undercut, both by the corruption of Anil making a sizeable profit is via Oscar success. Why Kapoor’s quizmaster and by Jamal’s motivation should a cheap British film, entirely shot in India for success, which it would be unfair to reveal. without one American star, win a competition It can in fact be read as a sly critique of the devised by Hollywood studios for Hollywood system of values in our status-obsessed studios? Perhaps for the same reason that a society, which prioritises uncontextualised Mumbai ‘charwallah’ (teaboy) from the slums academic knowledge over the real human should win a competition devised by the Indian experience acquired painfully by Jamal in the elite for the Indian elite – to expose prejudice slums of Mumbai. and celebrate our common humanity. After the Much publicity has recently been given to film’s spectacular success at the Oscars, we now more negative views of the film. It has been know that the slumdog can become a millionaire accused of poverty porn, implying that the twice over. harsh life of the slums is merely a picturesque travelogue catering for Western audiences, who Austin McHale is Head of Media Studies at Ellen Wilkinson remain distanced from and uninvolved in the School, Ealing. events they see. The slum dwellers, it is said, Images from Slumdog Millionaire courtesy of image.net. are patronised and stereotyped. Most bizarrely, Slumdog Millionaire is said to be a derogatory

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the cuckoo’s redemption

Mark Ramey shows how two contrasting films exploring themes of institutional constraint can construct powerful ideas about freedom and liberation – and provide a brilliant comparative case study for Film Studies FM2.

The FM2 exam in the new Film Studies AS requires you to compare two film texts linked by genre and/or theme. The bewildering possibilities for paired texts means that this could pose problems for students and teachers. This article aims to illustrate a possible route towards the exam by comparing two thematically linked films: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Forman, USA, 1975) and The Shawshank Redemption (Darabont, USA, 1994). Cinematic narrative is shaped by many forces but our focus here will be representation, as the Awarding Body suggests. How then do these films, despite their different production contexts, tackle their themes? I will argue that the dominant theme they both explore is the quest for personal liberation: liberation of both a physical and emotional nature. Ten comparisons and contrasts 1. Both films are set in the mid-to-late 20th century USA: The Shawshank Redemption starts in 1947 and ends up in 1966, a fact brilliantly suggested by the changing posters in Andy’s cell. The film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is set in the early 1970s although Ken Kesey based it on his experiences as a hospital orderly in the late 1950s.

2. They both focus on white male protagonists of approximately 30 years in age. A contrast can be found here in that One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has an Oscar-winning performance from Louise

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Fletcher (Nurse Ratched) and there are $4.4 million to make but took $112 million at 5. Both are critical and financial successes: also minor but important roles for two of the box office. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s The Shawshank Redemption was McMurphy’s female friends. The Shawshank Nest’s Hollywood pedigree harks back to nominated for seven Academy Awards Redemption is wholly male, although the the golden era of Hollywood as the original including Best Picture and Actor. Despite a presence of the Hollywood poster girls is of screen rights were optioned by screen idol poor performance at the box office it has interest. Kirk Douglas in 1962. He later passed them become one of the top grossing DVDs of all on to his son Michael, who co-produced time. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest won 3. The narratives are largely linear: The the film. (Add Catherine Zeta Jones in to five Oscars, including Best Picture, Actor and Shawshank Redemption condenses time the mix and you have the nearest thing to Actress and was a storming box office hit. over many years through slow dissolves contemporary Hollywood royalty.) As for and montage sequences and does have a 6. They are both literary adaptations: The The Shawshank Redemption, Tim Robbins narrated flashback sequence; One Flew Over Shawshank Redemption is based on a and his co-star Morgan Freeman were, and the Cuckoo’s Nest depicts an approximate Stephen King short story (‘Rita Hayworth still are, major stars and the Stephen King period of a few months and was shot in a and Shawshank Redemption’), a $1 screen material and $25 million studio-financing linear method, scene by scene, explicitly to adaptation deal with the director and screen (Columbia) budget ensured a big screen maintain its high degree of realism. writer Frank Darabont. Darabont later went treatment. Its initial failure at the box office on to direct another King prison story, The 4. They are both Hollywood films – one (barely recouping its budget) has been Green Mile. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s studio financed, one an independent. subsequently linked to a poor publicity Nest is based on Ken Kesey’s eponymous Jack Nicholson was fast becoming an campaign; a strange title; the apparently counter-culture bestseller and directed international star in 1975 but is the only depressing subject matter and, perhaps by Hollywood new boy, Czech émigré, ‘name’ in what was otherwise a low budget most importantly, strong competition from Milos Foreman who later went on to direct picture. He worked on a share of the profits the likes of Pulp Fiction, Speed and Forrest Amadeus. which was a smart move since the film cost Gump.

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7. Both films concern the nature and effects 10. They both explore the liberating effect of stumbles into a psychiatric institution and they of institutional confinement and both were courageous individuals in their search for literally cut his brains out. filmed in real locations – an abandoned personal freedom: McMurphy and Andy A need for friendship, an understanding prison, Mansfield State Reformatory, Ohio Defresne change the people they meet. of humanity and defiance in the face of and a practising asylum, Oregon State injustice is what fundamentally links these Mental Hospital. The central characters two men despite their different characteristics and backgrounds. Perhaps even their choice 8. They both show how corrupt and A first point of deeper comparison and of friends is significant – the Chief and Red are corrupting institutional life can be. The contrast should be with our two main characters: both outcasts within racially-charged systems authority figures who officially dominate Andy Defresne in The Shawshank Redemption and yet both are redeemed by the sacrifice of the institutions are terrifying depictions of and McMurphy in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s their friends. Red learns to hope again and Chief egotism and hypocrisy. Nest. Andy is cool, methodical and enigmatic; discovers the inner strength he had lost. a key factor in the casting of Tim Robbins. These films also share key plot points which 9. They both deal with terrible injustice McMurphy is conversely impish and emotive; a I sum up as: institutions; epiphany; secrets; and the human quest for retribution: gremlin in Nurse Ratchet’s tightly wound bun. death; escape. McMurphy is lobotomised but Chief frees Andy is tidy, polite and measured. McMurphy his spirit before freeing himself and literally is surly, scruffy and impulsive. Andy is ‘rational Institutions running off in to the wilderness. The system man’; McMurphy is ‘the beast’. Andy moulds chess Both films very swiftly depict their respective Andy Defresne finds himself imprisoned pieces from stones he finds in the prison yard; institutions as corrupt and corrupting. within is literally so corrupt and hellish that McMurphy carries a pack of pornographic cards Shawshank is a cramped, violent place: ‘the he must escape through the metaphorical and gambles; Andy is a middle-class banker; sisters’ (a homosexual gang) systematically beat and literal reality of Hollywood feminised McMurphy a working-class rebel. Andy is the and rape Andy and old prisoners bet on the fantasy (the poster) and four hundred yards gunpowder; McMurphy the match. Andy made survival rate of new prisoners. One new guy is of human shit (the sewer). thousands of dollars and was avenged. Murphy

english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 29 MM secret revelation is the realisation that Chief isn’t Redemption gives us is that systems can change mute but also a smart guy ‘playing the system’. too – individuals can change the world as well as McMurphy has an ally and a friend and, it seems, themselves. Perhaps it is salutary to recall Red’s the institution can be beaten. description of Andy which could just as easily apply to Chief: Death He strolled like a man with an invisible coat In one film we have a murder which is a gift to shield him. of calculated love and in the other a murder That’s the point: Chief and Andy were buried which is a judgement, coldly orchestrated. deep down and that was what kept them safe. In The Shawshank Redemption we see a When they finally escape their respective systems new prisoner accidentally beaten to death by they have both achieved something different the guards, but the assassination of Andy’s to protect them: Chief his ancestral power and surrogate-son, Tommy, at the Warden’s request, Andy both revenge and his dream of reaching is particularly chilling. This is not just because it the memory-erasing Pacific coast. McMurphy, on is a cold murder of an innocent man but rather the other hand, had too much life, he was just too because it is undertaken to further hinder Andy’s grounded, to truly fly over the cuckoo’s nest. claim of wrongful imprisonment. That the warden takes his own life is fitting but his suicide lacks Mark Ramey teaches Media Studies at Collyers College, the emotional intensity of poor Billy’s in One West Sussex. Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Although Billy kills himself one can argue that it was murder by the Follow it up cruel Nurse Ratched as it was she who had turned his sexual triumph into guilt-ridden disaster. Do you agree with this reading of One Indeed McMurphy’s eventual insight into Nurse Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest as an essentially Ratched’s icy, controlling nature leads him to pessimistic film with little hope for change? What other interpretations might you make of so badly beaten by a prison guard that he later attack her. For this act, he is lobotomised; when McMurphy’s death and Chief’s escape? dies. Shawshank is brutalising. The asylum that Chief murders him it is an act of liberation, not McMurphy finds himself in is equally brutalising destruction – ‘Let’s go!’ he whispers clamping the pillow to McMurphy’s blank face. Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption, d. but in a more subtle way. Nurse Ratched is as Frank Darabont (1994) Credit: Castle Rock Entertainment/The Kobal much a tyrant as Warden Norton but she thinks Collection/Weinstein, Michael she is caring. As for the male guards, whether in a Freedom Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, d. Milos Forman hospital or a prison, they are bullies at best. Both films deal with the courage to break out (1975) Credit: United Artists/Fantasy Films / The Kobal Collection and the idea that rule breaking is not always a Epiphany bad thing. In both films metaphoric liberation The human spirit can not be quashed. We are goes beyond its mere physicality: a tropical irrepressible. Yes, we can be terrifying and bestial, paradise in The Shawshank Redemption or but we also have the ability to love and hope and the dark wilderness in One Flew Over the make sacrifices. And it is in part our love which Cuckoo’s Nest. These are merely the ‘escape film empowers us to seek liberation. Murphy’s money shots’ and irrelevant to the spectacle sacrifice gives Chief the energy to break out of and wonder of the emotional escape. Chief is a the mental institution. And what better way to totemic representative of a persecuted race; he celebrate love in a loveless place than with music: vanishes into the existential dark leaving only Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro in prison; the McMurphy truly free. Andy, on the other hand, riot of sex, drugs and rock and roll in the asylum. defeats an entire punitive system; reveals its Both scenes illustrate the fulfilment that selfless abject hypocrisy; its inhumanity and corruption sacrifice can give to others. As the beautiful opera and finds freedom in life and love. One can’t help music in The Shawshank Redemption echoes feeling that the Chief will have a lonely life even out over the prison Tannoy system and transfixes after escaping the institution within which he its brutalised occupants, Morgan Freeman’s had elected to play mute. And of course that’s narration encompasses the essence of the film the anthem of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and presents us with an obvious link to One Flew – you too can escape. If the lunatics have really Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: taken over the asylum, then get out! It was like some beautiful bird flapped The Shawshank Redemption has a redemptive into our drab little cage and made the side for all of us – the tag line for the publicity is walls dissolve away. And for the briefest of revealing: moments every last man at Shawshank felt Fear can hold you prisoner – hope can set you free. free. It is no wonder Christians have read so much Secrets (spoiler alert!) into it. The Shawshank Redemption is about faith Two very well disguised plot lines deliver and endurance and friendship. It is a film imbued wicked twists. Firstly we discover that in The with hope. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is Shawshank Redemption Andy has been about revolution and fear. In The Shawshank concealing his escape tunnel behind a variety Redemption, Andy’s quiet, noble humanity saves of posters of cinematic starlets: Rita Hayworth him and damns the system. In the One Flew (40s); Marilyn Monroe (50s); Raquel Welch (60s). Over the Cuckoo’s Nest the system triumphs and Further twists show us how meticulously Andy disruptive, critical McMurphy pays with his head. has planned his escape and his retribution – such Only the Chief, of all the ward’s inmates, finds as concealing his ‘rock hammer’ in the Bible: the McMurphy’s unintentional martyrdom energising irony of ‘salvation lying within’ is not lost on the enough to make a run for it. Only the Chief religious hypocrite Warden Norton. really changes – the system and its hierarchy In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest the remain intact. The hope that The Shawshank

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What kind of teaching I was always an arrogant boundaries, my early universities, as such, but a open-mindedness of the child to teach. With my academic career was spent list of people with whom course (not to mention and learning would pencil, I would stab at vocally yearning – nay, I could associate in my its intimate head-count) you want from your the slightest glimpse of demanding – my right to fantasies. Even if I did not seemed to become vulnerability in a teacher’s curricular freedom and the know or respect their work, increasingly relevant to the university course? armour; a metaphor, of respect and responsibility they were people who boundary-less direction Will you thrive on course, for the initial test of that comes with it. So here had made it, who could that I had envisaged. And teacher character: response I am, nearing the end of a claim to be, by others if not so, at the beginning of the deadlines, guidance to pencillessness. ‘self-directed’ and examless themselves, film-makers, next academic year, I began and boundaries? Over the following year three-year degree at the regardless of their actual the attempted making of Or complete spent ‘under’ them, teachers Farnham University for the position in an industry I had my name, onwards and who had earned my Creative Arts (note that always chosen to ignore. downwards. independence? respect were subjected to in the official acronym, I came to recognise Problem 1: the Owen Davey a near-subconscious cross- ‘Farnham’ comes last). I have this paradoxical clash of examination and resulting been granted the demands ideals whilst visiting my first year reflects ruefully on manipulation which, of my schoolboy self, and UCAS choices. Having been First of all, let me his undergraduate thanks to my routinely (and have lived thus far to tell inspired by the output of address the immediate unjustly awarded) high the tale. But has creative the industry to seek the significant shortcoming of experiences on a grades, eventually granted and academic freedom title ‘film-maker’, it became this and almost all other Digital Screen Arts me classroom immunity. been all I anticipated? obvious that the industry three year degree courses: School was a system in I had experienced some itself required a curtailing of the first year. As a result degree course, and which teachers were freedom during 6th form, creative freedom. Courses of the ‘communication wonders whether players, like some incredibly having been lucky to attend demanded that you choose chasm’ that exists between mundane and complicated Cambridge’s Long Road a specific role other than educational policy makers, creative freedom is RP game: College, an institution that the blanket film-maker; that academic constructors and really preferable to a For some reason, you isn’t afraid to accommodate you learn and use certain the appliers of such rules, coherent disciplined must meet with a the entire spectrum of techniques and equipment; university tutors seem wizard outside the student personality and and that you prepare content to allow their first course structure. Science Block before working practice without yourself for the tradition year students to wallow the lesson’s end. Should lowering its standards. I was of shop floor entrance in in the irresponsibility of you: still fairly arrogant, choosing the faith that three years of an entire year without a) Use your Grade Skill when I would attend the such skills will guarantee significant exams. Yes, to charm a corridor-pass lessons, but I did work hard a steady if submissive rise you have to pass but, from Mrs Smith? at home. The previously through the gears. The act believe me, it’s incredibly b) Use your Feign Skill untaught curriculum of of joining such courses hard to fail. This lack of to gain permission to fine art, media, film and seemed to imply the need consequence, coupled see the nurse? photography that I had to relinquish creative with the usual pitfalls of c) Throw your Magic always yearned for was control in order, one very indulgence associated with Conkers to create a available via skilled and far off day, to get it back. higher education, can – and diversion? committed tutors, if and Opportunity to combine usually will – turn the most Despite my inconsistent when I chose to exploit both creative freedom and passionate and dedicated attitude towards teachers it. But forever there in my a clear trajectory came of young people into and game-like pleasures mind was a land of milk in the form of a botched disillusioned passengers, of responsibility-dodging and honey, of greener grass application. On turning unsafe in the knowledge within school’s strict and better prospects; it up at the UCA Farnham that whatever they do was called university, and campus open-day, I was means nothing as they it was where I imagined I told that, as I had not wait yet another year for would finally begin to make put their Film and Video the chance to prove their my name, whatever that course as the first choice worth. This is not simply was. Film-maker, I suppose. on my UCAS form, I would about grades but about And so I scoured perhaps be best suited to mentalities. The entire through the UCAS their Digital Screen Arts degree system is top-heavy, handbook until finally I course instead. This option with equipment, time and came up with a list dictated was initially unappealing; the attention of tutors less by practicality than by but as I was shown around increasing the closer you name dropping. Institutions with one other teenager by get to the end. Fair enough, lucky enough to claim even some kind of artist, judging you might say, but in the most tenuous of links by the opinionated, scruffy practice this can allow new to a now successful film- and haphazard demeanour students to stagnate, often maker made the list. In the of the man, the variety, causing crippling setbacks end it became not a list of opportunity and general to what would otherwise

english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 31 32 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre by making video-art. The the system to provide a reason they worked was coherent and consistent the same reason why a vehicle for learning, conventional narrative whether the student fiction might have chooses to take advantage worked in the context of a of that or not. I find myself conventional narrative film respecting the moderate course: they depicted, in principles of the Sixth Form their absurdity, the reality College more and more. of my experience at that I wonder if some of the current time. Don’t all good relative freedom filtered film-makers advise you to down into the school stick to what you know? system and some of the Well, due to having learnt school structure filtered up very little, I knew nothing into the university system, be hungry young minds, Year two without enrolment at all except my determination whether we would have ripe for steering towards Yes, I did pass, but as I (or so I thought). I now to ‘prove myself’ and a more responsible breed ambitious direction. entered the second year pined after the boundaries so depicted that blind of young person in our Two friends of mine are I was confused. My early and strict guidance of struggle. society, climbing a more taking a two year fast-track desire to become a film- my earlier education; More important, coherent, progressive and degree course at Guildford’s maker – whatever that at least it gave some however, is the question of encouraging ladder. Academy for Contemporary was – had been smeared tangible evidence, some why my fellow students and It must be said that the Music. The combination of and distorted in the measurable achievement I had found ourselves in theory side to my course a heavy workload (in part cross-contamination of in time and on paper, as such a position; unlearned was of a consistently high the result of the course’s my (metaphorical) fingers opposed to relentless and, for our money’s worth, quality and, although foreshortened format) and with what seemed like an hours of experimentation almost entirely untaught? previously not very high high expectations instils unhelpfully varied and desperately performed The answer could be that on my list of priorities, a feeling of achievement superficially introduced alone in my bedroom in a many artistic courses is a pivotal reason for and worth in what they array of pies, leaving me futile attempt to impose are run by artists and my nearing the end of are doing. It also speeds with a kind of cat-food- a little self-discipline and academics, proven in their my degree. My advice to up the process of deciding goo of half-baked web- salvage my ambition. But respective fields but clearly anybody about to leap whether this is right design, misunderstood without a strict curriculum lacking the managerial into university, and art for them; an important semiotic theory, video- I simply hadn’t had the and communicative skills school in particular is: role of the university art bombardment and training (or, at least, hadn’t they need in order to teach never make excuses for experience. Although ACM memories of torturous chosen to exploit what had well. It could be that I just yourself. If you want to is a commercially-funded teamwork. I attempted to been available), despite happened to find myself learn something, make sure institution, I see no reason switch to Fine Art, hoping my belief that at university on a dodgy course; but I it gets taught to you – if why more degree courses, simply to be left alone with I would work fantastically know from talking to Fine not by your teachers, then and particularly those in a blank, zen-like bit of wall hard. In frustration at my Artists without life-drawing by a book or a friend or the creative field, could space, but was convinced own lack of knowledge, the classes, and Animators the internet or through not adopt this healthy two at the last minute to bewildering way in which without theory tutors, that sheer determination. Oh, year format. Instead, I have remain a Digital Screen the university dispensed this is a wider problem. It and keep an open mind: experienced a system of Artist with the promise of knowledge and in could simply be that the I’ve decided to become a education that, despite its near-complete individual desperation at the film I felt only way artistry can be musician. claims to nurture creativity, creative autonomy by my slipping further and further learned is to allow freedom mirrors the hierarchy of concerned Head of Year – away from me, I made two for such chance ‘successes’ Owen Davey is in his final year the creative industries. It which is what I had always short films that I am now, I as my own to develop of a Digital Screen Arts degree has fallen into the routine wanted. Wasn’t it? think, relatively proud of. spontaneously, supported at the Surrey Institute for Art of using the first year as a Maybe so. But I did not The first was a comical by dabbles of guidance and Design, Farnham. shop-floor, a test of staying make the narrative fiction depiction of my own and knowledge for the power rather than an that had always seemed struggle to fit the alienating choosing. I now find this Image: Rebecca Scambler, using opportunity to develop. so inevitable – as it does in video-artist mould that had mentality as complacent Owen Davey’s digital media work. Some would argue that this the Hollywood-influenced suddenly felt expected of as I do the neglect of first in itself prepares students minds of most would-be me. With the unexpected years. for ‘the real world’; but film-makers. A strange high praise this film The most obvious they are wrong. Education thing happened: I got brought me within my answer in my case is that I is meant to be about angry – very angry – at university, came the second: actively rejected guidance bettering society, not what seemed like the now a parody of the first, and and through my own conforming to it. It is also pointless commitment its counter-intuitive model immaturity would have important, however, to of time and money to an for ‘success’ within the cried ‘fascist’ had this remember that the majority institution that was literally institutionalised minds of excessive freedom been of tutors working within teaching me nothing. I an art school. replaced by a more formal this system are committed was not even going to That may make them curriculum. But I’m running to such betterment and campus, save for one-off sound over complicated. out of arrogance now, and, that they may feel as held workshops by outside Really, they were a series of despite the protests that back by the current system professionals, and spent viralesque comedy video- my younger self would as I have done as a student. all of my time working sketches on the absurd have made, I believe it is from home on what could nature of attempting to the responsibility of the well have been achieved please video-artist tutors teacher, the institution and

english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 33 M M 34 Smith various states of peril. of cinemahistory depictchildren in Many of theacknowledged classics

MediaMagazine wonders why. |April2009 english andmedia centre Sean Kaye- Sean

PPan’san’s LabyrinthLbLabyrinth, 20062006,, ccourtesyourtesy ooff imaimage.netge.net So dreamlittleonedream. So Fear isonlyadream, dream. is that itallows everyone todreamthesame thingaboutthecinema The mostimportant culture. hidden memoriesofchildhoodandtheir symbolsthat take thembacktothe magical mysterious images, atavistic tales, and fairy People have aneedforforms, mythical From the soundtrack of ‘The Nightofthe From thesoundtrack of‘The Daniel Schmid(1941-2006) Hunter’ (1955) Hunter’ John Boorman

Tideland, 2005 Pan’s Labyrinth, 2006 courtesy of image.net Victor Enrice’s showing of the Boris Karloff showing oftheBoris Karloff who isprofoundly affected by atravelling cinema Ana on film,thesix-year-old Torrent plays agirl captured performances of themostremarkable Labyrinth ultimate ‘childhood’ film,isanotherstory, like favourite for many whichis, inmany ways, the 1987). The listisrichandvast,butaparticular London in mischievous mayhem onthebombsites ofSouth run for andonto the Jesusreturning to Earth, Lancastrian children mistakeacriminalonthe to watch, to thedrama of Blair, thestaroffilm,wasnotlegallyallowed Exorcist different genres: from of theextremities genre assuch,and, inevitably, straddlemany films inany historical periodhave explored of themostimaginative, andhaunting powerful wasalsoareminder thatsome not inEnglish.It classics, are great andmodern,ofcinemahistory ofthe a timelyreminder thatahighproportion choice ofGuillermodel Toro’s remarkable BBC4 panelofjudgesadjudicated over the Pan’s Labyrinth Wind childhood and, inparticular, children inperil childhood shouldseekthefilmout. film cancapture thewonder andmysteryof her remote village. Anyone interested inhow Films aboutchildhooddonotconstitute a When, earlyin2008,JonathanRossandhis (Bryan Forbes,(Bryan 1961)inwhichsome (William Friedkin, 1973)whichLinda (William asthebestforeign filmof2007,itwas Hope andGlory Spirit oftheBeehive , setduringtheSpanishCivil War: Whistle Down the (John Boorman (John Frankenstein (1973). In one (1973).In The in Pan’s . for example, theaforementioned – andheclearlyenjoyed hisbosses; outwitting Studios’ classichorror catalogueofthe1930s ofUniversala bidto challengethesupremacy work to titlessuppliedby RKO’s executives –in highly literate andcreative man,wasforced to landmarks ofthegenre. Lewton, whowasa Eyre With aZombie achievements inBritishcinemahistory. one ofwhichisthemoststunningvisual will setupanexaminationoftwo modernfilms, in peril’ filmandacloselookattwo ofthem fascinating andunusualexamplesofthe ‘children World hasproduced Cinema,Hollywood some Curse oftheCat People successful feature insisted thatheproduce asequelto hishighly this subversion to greater whenRKO extremes interesting andsomeofwhich,suchas the director Jacques Tourneur, allofwhichare horror movies for thestudio, mostnotablywith 1946 heproduced asequence oflow budget withfilmquality.directly Between 1941and proof thatfilmbudgetsseldomcorrespond the horror film.Lewton’s work atRKO isenduring of essential chapter inany history worthwhile understandably well documented andisan (1904-51) atRKO Studiesinthe1940shasbeen People With aZombie The career ofthe additionto theimaginativeIn richesof by Charlotte Brontë. However, hetook (1942)andthesuperblytitled (1943),are acknowledged isaclever reworking of Cat People producer ValLewton english andmedia centre |April2009 . underthetitle I Walked I Walked Jane Cat Cat

The MediaMagazine 35 M M Curse of the Cat People, 1944

MM , 1944 Curse of the Cat People of the Cat Curse

The Curse of the Cat People slaps a boy who has wilfully crushed a butterfly the opening sequence. But in actual fact Lewton had linked the film much more subtly with its What Lewton actually made is a film (which in his hand, and, following a disastrous birthday highly-acclaimed predecessor: Irena, the principal he privately called ‘Amy’s Friend’) which takes us party which no other children attend as Amy cat person from the first film – again played into the rather frightening world of a small girl, has posted the invitations in a hollow place in by the French actress Simone Simon – returns the daughter of two of the leading characters of a tree in the garden (taking a poetic comment as a kind of fairy godmother figure, or ‘unseen Cat People. The film is superbly photographed by her father too literally), she begins to take friend’, who befriends Amy in the magical setting in haunting black and white by the great dubious refuge in an old house down the road. of the family garden. Irena becomes a vital cinematographer Nicholas Musucara and we The building is a classic childhood fantasy of a ‘presence’ at the end of the film in the old house first see Amy, played convincingly by the seven- haunted house and is inhabited by an eccentric when the old lady dies and Amy is left alone year-old Ann Carter, on an atmospherically- old woman and her menacing, embittered with the potentially murderous daughter. Her staged school trip to Sleepy Hollow (which daughter. The finished film, partly inspired by confused identification of the daughter with the suggests that the film has been an influence on Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘An Unseen Friend’ from benevolent spirit of Irena defuses the situation modern cult director Tim Burton). Surrounded A Child’s Garden of Verses (1885), is a subtle and arguably saves Amy’s life. And in a genuinely by classmates, she is nevertheless clearly lonely study of the fears and insecurities of childhood, moving closing scene, the smiling, ghostly image and misunderstood. Her troubles begin when she in particular the fear of being unable to fit in with other children and be accepted. of Irena in the garden is finally acknowledged ‘Amy’s a nice girl, only a little by Amy’s father, bringing about a spiritual and different,’ says her teacher, a emotional reconciliation between father and remark echoed in her father’s daughter. later comment: ‘Amy has too Amy’s journey in the film from misunderstood many fancies and too few loner to threatened innocent to reconciliation friends.’ and love is a very positive representation of Inevitably the RKO bosses childhood. The strangeness of the film, and Amy’s were so alarmed when they indomitable spirit, both recall Lewis Carroll’s saw that their film The Curse Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), a text of the Cat People had no cat which seems to reverberate through cinema people in it that they forced history as well as children’s literature. Lewton to include some boys encountering a black cat in

36 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre MM , 1955, Courtesy of the BFI Picture Library of the BFI Picture , 1955, Courtesy The Night of the Hunter The

The Night of the Hunter This notion of the fearful strangeness of childhood and the theme of children in peril reached a high point in Hollywood in 1955 with the release of The Night of the Hunter, the only Whilst it is clear that Laughton was ‘trying helicopter shots – at times suggesting in near film to have been directed by the British actor things out’ – often the case with first films – silhouette what a horror film might have looked Charles Laughton (1899-1962). Laughton had the presence of a strong cast, who were very like had it been shot by Disney Studios during gone to Hollywood in the 1930s where he had loyal and supportive of their fellow actor’s first their classic era. become an unlikely box office hit playing bizarre step into film directing, and the outstanding The Night of the Hunter is a stunning characters such as Captain Bligh in Mutiny on the cinematographer Stanley Cortez, meant that he verification of Alfred Hitchcock’s claim that Bounty and the grotesquely deformed bell ringer could experiment in style. As a result The Night ‘in a film the camera tells the story and the Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame of the Hunter, which was a box office failure dialogue is just part of the atmosphere’, (1955; see MM27). Encouraged to direct by other on first release, is now regarded as one of the as image after image attests to the children’s actors, Laughton eventually chose Davis Grubb’s greatest and strangest of all American films. courage and resilience. Interestingly the film haunting novel The Night of the Hunter (1953) Here are children, John and Pearl, in great peril in displays similar traits in its representation of the for what is his only directorial credit. their own house. Their mother, played by Shelley elderly as, at the end of their river journey, the The film sticks faithfully to the novel in which a Winters, is completely swamped by the preacher’s children become part of a young community young brother and sister go on the run to escape bogus evangelism so that the young boy has cared for and protected by an old woman (Lillian a psychopathic preacher who has spent time to defend not only himself and his infant sister Gish). She not only defends them, rifle in hand, in jail with their doomed father and goes on to against the murderous intruder, but also the against the preacher’s threatening advances but marry and murder their mother. The preacher legacy of his dead father who stored his loot in restarts their moral and social education after all played by louche, tough guy actor Robert Pearl’s doll before being taken by the police. This the lawlessness they have been subjected to. In Mitcham in a career best performance, is the enormous responsibility is compounded horribly one of the stranger stylistic devices in the film, ultimate wicked stepfather who pursues the when the preacher Powell murders their mother Gish talks directly to camera about her mission children downriver through the American South and the children are forced to flee in the night. with the children. before the dénouement on a farm where the Significantly all the adults to whom they could The film actually begins and ends with her children have been sheltered by a resilient old have turned for help prove to be useless. The speaking directly to us, her final words in praise woman, played by the iconic silent screen star children’s flight downriver is a truly extraordinary of all children being: Lillian Gish. sequence, filmed in a variety of styles – including They abide and they endure.

english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 37 MM , 2005 Mirrormask

Tideland and Mirrormask Gilliam, like Lewis Carroll, unashamedly celebrates Director Terry Gilliam also addresses the the wonder and sheer toughness of little girls; camera directly with similar sentiments at the he has inevitably, if unfairly, been criticised for start of his 2005 film Tideland. In noirish black showing the child dealing with the inappropriate and white Gilliam looks straight at his audience romantic attentions of a mentally disabled man. and declares: Other scenes in which she is harassed by a tall Children are strong, they’re resilient, they’re black-cloaked witch-like figure, played by the designed to survive. When you drop them statuesque British actress Janet McTeer, recall they tend to bounce. Amy’s experiences in the old house in Curse of Tideland is one of two remarkable films, made the Cat People. Tideland is Terry Gilliam at his around the same time, which take the Alice in most challenging and thought-provoking and Wonderland motif of propelling a young girl its 15 certificate is entirely justified. It is also very into an unsettling world of nightmares and interesting that Gilliam was J.K. Rowling’s own danger as a test of her mettle; the other is Dave first choice for director of Harry Potter and the McKean’s remarkable Mirrormask. Both films are Philosopher’s Stone. visually stunning in very different ways, placing The leading character in Mirrormask is older at each child in an almost overwhelmingly visually fifteen. She is the disillusioned daughter of circus dense world teaming with extraordinary images owners and performers, allowing the film-makers and décor and bizarre characters. In Tideland to explore the wonderfully subversive notion of a child (played with exceptional assurance by a child who wants to run away from, not to, the Jodelle Ferland), survives the deaths of both circus. When her mother is hospitalised, she is of her irresponsible drug-soaked parents and pulled into an amazing fantasy world which, from the threatening attentions of a number of the very beginning, seems to be a visualisation menacing adults to take her place in the world. of her dreams and anxieties. This adds weight to As with Mirrormask, the plot seems almost screenwriter Paul Mayerberg’s remarks that: immaterial; both films unfold as imaginative Images are the clues not to the story so much visual meditations on the sheer strangeness as the characters, their inner lives. of childhood and the protagonist’s ability to As the Bristol Venue magazine said, if the negotiate her way through the phantasmagoria. film ‘looks as though every frame has been composed with loving care by an illustrator’

38 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre Tideland, 2005 Tideland, 2005 with and novel children; theirprevious collaborations includethe We alsoseetheself-confessed ‘national treasure’ two seriousroles addsto thesubversive magic. even withoutthe the popular Welsh comedy actor believed. The sheerimaginative ofthe density British cinemaandhasto beliterally seento be Stephen Fry mise-en-scène ISwappedThe Day forTwo MyDad Goldfish that isprecisely becauseithasbeen. 2009 release books, picture –andtwo remarkable anddue for Selick withdirectorproduction Henry and for Dave McKean a particularly fruitfulunion. a particularly There are many The cinemaandchildhooddoesseemto be are extraordinary. the filminway theywanted to. The results are under theradartheycould getonwithmaking anxious producers andfinanciers–safely tucked colleagues could work onthefilmundisturbedby a comparatively andhis smallsumMcKean unlikely godsend;becausethebudgetwassuch small budgetof£2,500,000proved to bean creatures inthefilm.Andironically therelatively gives voice to oneoftheinnumerablebizarre National Theatre ofScotland. by theImprobable Theatre Company andthe turned into abrilliant ‘musical pandemonium’ Mirrormask All ofthechildren inthefilmsexplored here survivors The Wolves intheWalls writer NeilGaiman Coraline Mirrormask , butonlyhismouthisvisibleashe andeachfilmcelebrates that. is a multiple award-winning artist, isamultipleaward-winning artist, isunlikeanything elsesofarin –whichatthetimeofwritingisin would makethefilmawonder soundtrack heteamed uponce again to produce awork for . The latter hasbeen . The presence of Rob Brydon Director

in particularly resonant conclusion: particularly the London Blitzin John Boormanwhogave usachild’s viewof explored above, butthewords ofBritishdirector reasons for this, someofwhichhave been

Mirrormask, 2005 fascinating… that aremadeaboutchildhoodalways out, it’s seeing what itwants tosee. Films whereas theadulteye isfilteringthings what exactly isthere, asdoesthecamera, –theinnocenteye.the camera Achildsees The eye closetotheeye ofachildisvery of Hope andGlory , makea english andmedia centre |April2009 School inBristol.School Studies andEnglishat Ashton Park teaches Kaye-Smith Media Sean MediaMagazine 39 M M MM A photo from release the Magnolia Pictures B13”,“District by directed Pierre Morel and starring Cyrial Raffaelli, David Belle,

Pete Fraser of Long Road Sixth Form introduces a different kind of media course. The articles on the following 11 pages are all written by students studying for the Creative and Media Diploma.

The new Creative and Media diploma, which started last September, is one of the first of the government’s new 14-19 diplomas; around 60 consortia of schools and colleges around the and country getting were able to set it up this year. MediaMagazine The diploma is a project-based course with lots of hands-on activity but also lots of opportunity to participate in projects that extend out of the classroom, such as visiting commissioned to write articles for it, or making promotional videos for small companies. Students on the Long Road course have worked with film-makers on short film projects and have organised festival events to showcase their work. Later this year, they will be putting on a show in Second Life. To find out more about our course and have a look at student blogs, our YouTube collection and Flickr site, which visit cmdiploma.com contains lots of photos of students on all their projects and activities. TonyD’Amario.

40 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre MM

It’s free, fast, a media-friendly phenomenon – and fun (if not a little dangerous). Laurence Smith on the delights of free running

Just to set the record straight free running is often confused with parkour but they are two different things. Free running is freedom of movement, moving around your surroundings in the smoothest and most stylish way possible. Parkour is a frame of mind and a way of life, aiming to reach your destination in the quickest way possible, overcoming any obstacle that may be in your path, physically or mentally. This article is about how free running has grown in the past few years and how the media has promoted it to the public. A quick history round up Free running developed from parkour which started in France and was used in the military. Everyday life Since the early 1980s it has become more popular Free running can be known as an extreme with the general public as a way to keep fit. sport, which teenagers love! It is cheap and all it requires is time, physical strength and How it jumped Britain determination to overcome challenges in new Free running hit Britain in late summer 2003 in and interesting ways. Anyone can do free running the Channel 4 documentary Jump London, which like jumping over wall or climbing trees. It is showed professional free runners wandering just about how far you are willing to go. You can around London’s landmarks demonstrating their learn certain moves like ‘cat grab’ or ‘Kong’. Even skills to the public. Two years later came Jump though free running can become very dangerous, Britain, which involved more professional free it is good for people to test their limits. But be runners showing their skill all over England, sure not to be stupid and go for the hardest thing Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (http:// straight away. You need to train your body, which uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LzvAm3SRbtg). then makes you fitter – a good thing and far Since then free running has become increasingly better then being fat! popular.

english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 41 MM

The big screen Jumping in to the screens at As well as being big in the street, free home running is growing at the cinema too. Casino Free running is something that is showing Royale has a free running chase scene with one up more and more on television. It has appeared of the free running founders Sébastien Foucan on trailers for the BBC featuring David Belle; Top (even though Craig used a stunt double in some Gear featured two free runners racing against a of the first part of the chase scene). Face it: there Peugeot 207 in Liverpool where the free runners is no way Daniel Craig could have actually kept won (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=_ up with Sébastien Foucan even if he is James d4FFPVydLE). It has also appeared in Britain’s Bond! Got Talent, Friday Night Project, Modern Marvels, Heroes, and Taurus. Harry Hill’s TV The gaming scene Burp involved a spoof of a scene from The Bill Free running is also growing in gaming. when the police are chasing a free runner. Some of the first free running in games was from Lara Croft’s Tomb Raider, where Lara Jumping the interweb jumped and swung around tombs avoiding YouTube is a popular place to show home bad guys, deadly animals and traps. Another videos displaying your free running skills to big character who is a master in free running the world. There are some really good videos is Altair from 2007 Assassins Creed; Prince of of free runners, including one made by our Persia is another free running master in the class. Audiences can see the potential of the gaming world. sport and of the human body by watching video of others around the world doing Jump to the music things they couldn’t have dreamed of. So the New music videos have featured free internet is adding to the popularity of free runners: Madonna’s ‘Jump’ has three free running in the world (http://uk.youtube.com/ runners running around the streets and roofs watch?v=ZHI1AydHBpk). of Tokyo, while the video for the band 3 Doors Down’s ‘it’s not my time’ has a free runner Laurence Smith is studying the new Creative and Media trying to rescue a mother and a child about to Diploma at Long Road Sixth Form, Cambridge. get hit by a truck. Free running is appearing more and more in music video, and it will become more popular as people achieve unbelievable stunts with no special effects.

42 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre MM

Sam Chappell-Winnington muses on the power of music to debate, critique and change minds.

Without a shadow of a doubt, you listen to music. Of course you do, it’s everywhere. There’s music coming from your television, your computer, the car stereo, shops, phones, and MP3 and CD players. The list of music sources is endless. But how often do you stop and pay attention to what the artists are saying in their

english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 43 MM

work? Music is quite possibly one of the best ways to get your opinions and feelings across freely. Despite so called Freedom of Speech legislation, our more controversial spoken comments still get us into trouble; however it often seems that the same opinions in song are perfectly acceptable. For decades artists from Bob Dylan to U2 to Rage Against The Machine have been angered by different troubles and inspired to write songs about them, some to draw attention to the problem and some to prompt direct action against political wrongdoings. One of the first widely-recognised artists to use song to speak freely was Bob Dylan. He felt the government of the United States might be so tied up with other things in other countries that they forget they must run their own country first. He made it clear that the political problems in the United States are not out of the reach of the general public, but the problems are actually right beside them and they could help to solve them. Dylan famously brought this to everyone’s attention when he released ‘Blowin in the Wind’, with the ambiguity of the lyrics:

How many times must the cannonballs fly, Before they are forever banned. The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind, The answer is blowing in the wind. Another good example of his early tendencies to critique the American government is in his 1963 song ‘Masters of War’. Dylan writes about how the leaders of the US just send young men out to war without a care. In part of the fourth verse he sings ‘You fasten all the triggers,/For the others to fire,/ Then you sit back and watch while the death count gets higher’. Bob Dylan clearly has no shame in what he writes about or how he writes it: he uses his freedom in the music to put his point across. Rage Against The Machine, known as the angriest artists in rock, are a much more recent example of artists taking advantage of their musical freedom. Formed in 1991, their revolutionary blend of Rap, Funk and Metal endlessly bombarded various political issues. With songs like ‘Wake up’ from their debut self-titled album it’s made clear that Zack and his band are not shy. The lyrics discuss racism within the American government and the counter-intelligence programs of the FBI, and a spoken portion of the song is taken from an actual FBI memo in which J. Edgar Hoover suggests targets for the suppression of the Black Nationalist movement. The song also makes references to prominent black figures targeted by the government, such as Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., and goes as far as saying that the government arranged their assassinations.

44 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre MM

With regard to wage slavery and freedom, and more and more often they are inspired by to be politically correct, to the point where you Rage guitarist Tom Morello said: something the government has messed up on. can be criticised for voicing your views in many America touts itself as the land of the free, In the past few years, we have seen young public forms; yet this barrier does not seem but the number one freedom that you people starting bands from as young as six or to diminish freedom of expression in music, and I have is the freedom to enter into a seven-years-old. This means schools are full making it probably the most effective way subservient role in the workplace. Once you of budding musicians of five to 16 bursting of getting your voice heard. Also, with all the exercise this freedom you’ve lost all control to write and perform songs about anything wars, general corruption and political wrongs over what you do, what is produced, and how and everything. Despite a century of recorded in the world today, people need the freedom to it is produced. And in the end, the product song-writing, and the exhaustion of every express their views and hopefully make some doesn’t belong to you. The only way you can random topic you could think of, even very change without being discriminated against avoid bosses and jobs is if you don’t care young bands are writing songs about the or ignored. Music is so effective for sharing about making a living. Which leads to the political upsets of the world. For example, new opinions because ideas aren’t censored; it is second freedom: the freedom to starve. indie band, How to Kill a Conversation (five heard by audiences worldwide and provokes Although not all are as open and passionate 16-year-olds from Cambridge) has a new song people to think. about making political comments and protests, called ‘Oil’. The song is about the War on Terror, many artists make statements through their and the fight for the planet’s oil reserves. To Sam Chappell-Winnington is studying the new Creative music no matter how slight; it is still there and me this shows that it is not only multimillion and Media Diploma at Long Road Sixth Form, Cambridge. still often turns heads, whether it is the Rock/ pound recording artists who can protest about Hip-Hop group Flobots wearing American these things freely; even bands trying to break flags as bandanas or Green Day and U2 into the market have the confidence and drive collaborating to write the song ‘The Saints to express themselves without limit. are Coming’. Every artist has something to say; In my opinion there is an extreme pressure

english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 45 MM

the cat empire

Alexander Whitcomb explores the diversity and hybridity of a remarkable band which defies categorisation and national boundaries.

46 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre MM voice of Felix Riebl ringing through my speakers. It has been suggested that The Cat Empire With the song turning out how it was, I learned is a ‘Free Jazz’ band. However, I disagree. In fact to appreciate the trumpet more, and now when they take very conventional elements of Latin I listen to the trumpet at the beginning of ‘How Jazz – and Ska, and Hip-Hop, and Rap, and Rock To Explain’, I enjoy it as much as I do the rest of – and weave them together into something, in the song. my opinion, very new and unique. So I would There are several different editions of Two suggest that, while they might be Free Rock/Free Shoes, each of which has the songs in a different Pop, Free Jazz they are not. order and, occasionally, the songs on the album differ. The track ‘The Chariot’ mixes a speedy reggae verse with an emphasised brass-section which kicks in lively during the chorus. It sounds clashy, I know, but the mix is seamless. They go perfectly together. Over the top is Riebl singing about how the band fights its own war, the punchline being ‘Our weapons were our instruments’. I was recently introduced to a band that has ‘Two Shoes’, the song with the same name as actually become my favourite band of all time. the album is a fantastic example of what The Cat The introduction was one of the most off-hand Empire is capable of. It is slower than most of the comments I could recall. A friend of mine simply other songs on the album, which some may see stated, ‘Oh, listen to this, it’s pretty good.’ This as a bad thing; however I think it is nice to have off-hand comment let me into a world of music I a bit of variety from songs such as ‘Sly’ and ‘The hadn’t previously discovered – and I wasn’t ready Car Song’, which involve shouted choruses (in to go back. The song he showed me was ‘Hello’ a good way), call-and-response verses and are by the band The Cat Empire. I was immediately altogether more lively. Both styles are executed blown away by the song’s diverse style, unlike with brilliance and neither is better than the any other I knew. The Cat Empire is one of those other. Also, of course, their endless enthusiasm bands that some people will not like, but in makes the sound they produce seem like the others it will trigger intense adoration. future of any feel-good Ska music. The band was first formed in late 1999. It consisted of three members playing The Cat Empire is a band that some people enthusiastically in jazz clubs, bars and festivals. just won’t get. I had a friend listen to them and But over the years it grew and grew and now say, ‘They’re good, but they’re not that great are consists of six core members. There were three they?’ I can see what he means, but it’s rare to horn players and there have been over forty find a band that puts so much soul into each guest musicians and dancers in the band. The and every song. The Cat Empire is growing fast Cat Empire has an incredibly eclectic style which and its popularity increases every day. Personally rubs off in their music and draws in a huge I find it amazing that a band so brilliant has range of different styles from all over the world taken so long to climb to the top. They are a including Indie, Ska, Rock, Reggae, Jazz, Hip- band who can cheer me up whenever I listen to Hop, Latin, Funk, Cuban and Alternative (with them. I enjoy them endlessly. I recommend this a smattering of rap thrown on the side). This band to anyone, and I mean it. I normally like combination of several different foreign cultures Rock and Rave bands, yet this band is still my comes together brilliantly and is part of their favourite of all. growing popularity around the world. Ten minutes of listening will take you on a Having listened to this track (‘Hello’) I insisted ‘World Tour’ embracing Melbourne Australia on listening to more, and was captivated by (their home town, and often referenced), Cuba the brilliant sound I heard. It isn’t just the fact (the source of many of their musicians), Jamaica they have developed their own style of music (the source of their spiritual inspiration – Bob drawing from all of those different styles, it is the Marley), England (Madness influences are often vibrancy with which they play, and the energy attributed to them) and others. For anyone they put into the performance. They have who wants to feel good, or anyone who likes developed the songs so you can hear that, as Also on the album is the song ‘Sol y Sombra’ any of the genres listed that this band belongs well as just recording the songs, they are actually which starts off with a simple piano piece to – and even anyone that usually doesn’t – I having great fun recording them. This gives their before throwing in the drums and some Spanish say, try them out. You might find it rewarding. music an edge above other bands, with the singing. The song consists of just seven repeated This is one Feline Kingdom that I wouldn’t mind enjoyment rubbing off on the listener. lines, but this doesn’t take much away from its belonging to. As soon as I had finished listening to the feel. It’s all sung in Spanish and has a strong two tunes my friend showed me I hurried to Cuban accent to it. ‘Sol y Sombra’ means ‘Sun Alexander Whitcomb is studying the new Creative and the stores and ravaged the shelves to find and Shade’. It is a very different song to the Media Diploma at Long Road Sixth Form, Cambridge. this masterpiece. However, due to their lesser others on the album, and brings in its own style, popularity in England, the album I was looking but you can still definitely see that Cat Empire for (named Two Shoes) had limited supply. twinkle in its eye. The song is very jazzy in the Luckily I located it and before long I was back middle with a jazz drum riff and bass, with a at home, CD player on and listening eagerly. nice little piano solo over the top to finish it off, Track one (named ‘How To Explain’) opens with a which I have to say, is impressive. trumpet solo, which, I will admit, is not too much to my taste, as it follows a Latin jazz sort of style. However, only seconds later the song explodes into a fast-paced piece, with the enchanting

english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 47 MM

is online gaming hazardous to health? David Pinchen debates the pros and cons, and decides it’s all a question of balance.

Online gaming these days has become a the world. It’s even built up an economy, where large part of many people’s lives from all around people buy and sell online currency and other the world, bringing them together to fight off in-game items to players. While it may distract hordes of virtual aliens, or just simply to pit some people from going out and seeing their themselves against one another in a fight to the friends on a regular basis, it has given them the death. They have, according to critics, sucked the chance to look inside the workings of many social life out of many of today’s teenagers. But other countries. is it all bad? A large portion of today’s teenage generation Getting the balance right spends much of its free time sitting in front of But perhaps sometimes a bit of a social life a computer screen shooting aliens, zombies or is good for people; human interaction is always other teenagers sitting at another computer a good thing. Perhaps a careful balance of screen. But is this really such a bad thing? Some the two would be a good idea for everyone, would argue that they do not get out of the giving the people who currently aren’t gamers house enough, breathe fresh air, socialise with opportunities to get together with the rest of other human beings, play with friends in the park the world and connect with people they would or go to the cinema with their peers. never have met before. And at the same time, players who spend their Global friendships whole lives sitting at a computer screen need the Many of those who sit inside playing these chance to get out and enjoy more of what life games have made friends from all around the has to offer. It’s good to spend time with friends, world. Through their online games they have and connect with human beings personally, connected with other people, sometimes their instead of assuming people are who they say own age, some older or younger, and have they are on the internet. become good friends, often playing the games I think in conclusion people should all explore together with a group of people who they know the opposite of what they are currently doing. If only through the wonders of the internet. you’ve never used a computer to make friends around the world by playing online games, Bonding as clans you should try it out. And if you’re an obsessive With the introduction of PvP games (Player vs player, try to get out a bit more and spend time Player) people have grouped together in clans with friends and peers, get to know what else and played against other clans in tournaments life has to offer, and find out about your own and leagues. Often major corporations organise country, instead of everyone else’s. events where people from all around the world A careful balance of games and socialising can get together and play their favourite games would be a good thing for everyone. Not against one another on a LAN network. These everyone may be interested in blowing the countries that you would never have known events are becoming more and more popular heads off zombies (although I can’t see why not!) before you knew someone online. every year; with the emergence of nvision and there are always other computer programs I can remember a few occasions when I have and other large tournaments, players have the designed to bring people together. Online been playing games and experienced things I’d opportunity to get together more and more, and social networking, using the same principle never expected to happen to someone half way finally meet some of their online friends. as computer games, can enable anyone from across the world. For example, while playing On the flip side, others would argue that it is anywhere in the world to get together on a one game with an online friend, he disappeared much better to spend your time outside with website, post comments, have conversations and for a few moments, only to come back to tell your friends and peers, going out to the park and make new friends every day. With the internet, me that a riot had broken loose right outside playing football on a regular basis, or doing other the possibilities are endless, and with so many his front door. And on several occasions I have social things like visiting the cinema or going to ways to connect with new people there are born witness to someone breaking up with their a party occasionally. It’s argued that it’s healthier opportunities for everyone. Some are easier than partner through an online game. to spend time with people you know in person, others, some are more difficult; but in the end rather than wasting your time with people you Bringing the world together both gamers and non-gamers can make friends know nothing about. anywhere in the world. On the whole I think that online games have Is the fact that you may spend much of your brought the world slightly closer together time inside playing computer games, and talking David Pinchen is studying the new Creative and Media than before, giving people from anywhere to people that you have never met really such Diploma at Long Road Sixth Form, Cambridge. opportunities to find out about things that they a bad thing? While inside playing those games, would never have experienced previously. Online you may learn about things from different gaming has arguably done a lot of good for

48 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre MM

censoring the media?

Whatever your spec, debates about regulation will be part of it, Tim Hodson offers an overview of the different strategies employed by media regulators of film, games, TV, the Web and music, and explores their ethics and effectiveness. Censorship comes in many different forms and in all forms of media. Films, music, TV, magazines, games, DVDs and even books are all regulated in some way, shape or form. This could be something simple like blanking swear words, as is found in magazines where asterisks replace

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most of the letters in the word ‘f***’, whereas to ask for ID providing you look like you could this happens, the game designers are generally TV will just insert a high pitched ‘beep’ over the possibly be 18. Many people use the games as asked to remove some parts of the game or alter word(s) they do not wish to be broadcast. a way to tune out of the real world and if they them slightly to make it more appropriate; but want to steal a car, they steal a car in-game in the case of Manhunt II this was not possible, The video game debate instead of in the real world. In could be argued, so it was refused an age certificate and therefore Most forms of media, from video games to therefore, that the game stops people breaking banned from sale in the UK. The BBFC wanted DVDs, both rated by the British Board of Film the law, although ironically many adults believe to prevent children or impressionable teenagers Classification, give a specific age rating if their that such games encourage kids to steal cars from accessing Manhunt II – mainly on the content is deemed unsuitable for everyone. and argue that the games should be banned. grounds that you were practically forced to stalk There is particular controversy about certain The amazingly realistic graphics that some of and brutally murder people, unlike other games video games. The popular Grand Theft Auto the newer games have seem to fuel such worries such as Grand Theft Auto, where killing people series is frequently linked to violent behaviour about their impact on young people. is possible but is not always necessary. in teenagers as they try and repeat things they do in the game. The game creators get away Refusal of certificate Age-related film with labelling the game with an 18+ rating: they Some games are even refused certificates. One classification assume only people who are over 18 will play such is Manhunt II, which was scheduled to be Films are also given age ratings by the BBFC and are smart enough to realise the difference released on the Wii and PS2; but when the BBFC who basically say what films are suitable for what between games and life. But is this really good played through the game, using cheats and level age ranges from Uc to 18. The films are classified enough? It is still very easy to get hold of the skips to get through it as quickly as possible by theme, language, nudity, sex, violence, game if you are under 18, whether you get an (they only spend about five hours on each imitable techniques, horror and drugs. For older parent or friend to buy it for you, or even game before discussing it between them), they example, Eagle Eye is a 12A film, and is full of just walk in and buy it, as very few shops bother decided it was unsuitable for public sale. When guns, explosions, killings and car chases. I would

50 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre MM assume that it is a 12A due to the says to the audience. A ‘live’ show that has been rather action-based nature of the film. recorded and is being shown on TV is different, Ghost Town, on the other hand, has because unsuitable parts can be edited out, but if absolutely no violence in it and yet is you are actually there the performer can say or do still rated a 12A. I think this might be whatever they want and with no consequences because at one point, near the end – at least until someone important hears about it of the film one of the characters says and decides to do something. ‘F***ing’. I imagine this film would I recently found out how to become an have been a PG had the word not audience member at the recording of BBC shows been used, but parents may not want such as Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Mock the their children to be exposed to that Week. Sadly, because the BBC is anxious to avoid kind of language at such an early age, airing potentially offensive material (in itself very hence the higher rating. Similarly, difficult since virtually anything can be deemed How to Lose Friends and Alienate racist or unacceptable) much of the funniest stuff People is a 15, presumably because in the recording is edited out and so only seen by there is a bit of ‘bad language’, a small the studio audience. Some bits never get aired, amount of nudity, and the idea of but do get released on DVD, for example Mock doing drugs is hinted at part-way the Week’s Too Hot for TV, which is rated 18 as it through. Many parents worry about was deemed inappropriate for TV where younger their kids seeing people in films doing viewers could watch it. drugs, so that would bump the rating up. Death Race is another 15; in this Where I stand case, it is clear why. This film appears I’m not entirely sure where I stand on this to be almost two hours of needless argument. I can see that regulating games and TV violence. From start to finish, the is important or children will all grow up to think film is about people making vehicles that killing people is fine and cars are just there their children go and see, so by that reasoning, to kill as many as possible, as quickly for the taking. I can also see that films need to be shouldn’t 15A and 18A be a requirement in as possible; however, there is little, if any, bad rated by age to at least attempt to stop children cinemas? Once again, if your parents allow you language and no nudity or drugs, so it is a 15 seeing risky material until they are deemed old to watch the film, what is the need for rating it? instead of an 18. enough by society to do so. However, I also think In any case you can simply get your parents to that the issue is taken far too seriously. This is well buy you a ticket and nobody is any wiser; so the illustrated in the episode of Family Guy titled system would appear to be flawed. Many films ‘PTV’. Some people from the TV censorship office have had sequences edited out in order to be come over and use the delightful phrase: His chin shown to a cinema audience. This may just be looks like balls. You want me to cover those, cutting a bit of swearing, or toning down the too? I think that phrase reflects my opinion gore levels; this is most common in horror films, of censorship rules very nicely: people should and they are generally released shortly after the lighten up a bit and not be so easily offended. original DVD in an ‘uncut’ version to sell to those However, no matter what I think, it is ultimately who want to see the film in its original form. up to the parents what they decide to let their children do, play or watch. No matter how hard Getting around online rules they try, there is very little that parents can do Censorship is frequently seen as a way to limit their children’s exposure to unsuitable of protecting children from unsuitable or material. They can ban certain age-related games disturbing material. Unfortunately (or fortunately, or movies from the house, thus stopping the child depending on your viewpoint) it is relatively easy accessing unsuitable material in their presence; to get around censorship rules. For example, the but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t going to internet: one quick search on Google can bring watch them at someone else’s house, sneak into up millions of ‘adult’ web-pages, no matter what the cinema, or download the films they aren’t age you are, so unless you constantly monitor allowed to watch. your kids or have a very strong parental control program, it is very hard to keep them away from Tim Hodson is studying the new Creative and Media The 12A problem damaging material. Most kids nowadays know Diploma at Long Road Sixth Form, Cambridge. Most multiplex cinemas ask for ID when selling how to use the internet and can quickly access tickets for 18 films, but once you are past the the game, movie or TV show in question. Many box office, you are pretty much free to go and websites do ask for proof that you are old enough see whatever you want and nobody pays much to play the games, watch the videos, and listen to attention. What is the point of age ratings if the music, although much of the time they just 10-year-olds can buy a ticket to The Incredibles, have a ‘yes or no’ button to press, or ask for your and wander in to watch Saw? 12A was created so date of birth, which can easily be made up. under-12s could go and watch 12-rated films in the company of an adult. There is very little you Editing live recordings can do to check a child’s age, so for all the good Live concerts, especially stand-up comedy, it does, 12A might as well be abolished, leaving a have also been seen as a bad influence on people jump from PG to 15. Parents choose what they let as there is in theory no limit to what a performer

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52 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre MM Sexual desire on TV is represented as being predominantly heterosexual; that is presented as the norm. However, experience tells us that sexual desire is a lot more fluid than this. The depiction of sexual freedom on the small screen is often the source of controversy and concern as it can connote promiscuity. It is taking time to break down the representation of ‘alternative’ sexual identities as a series of tired stereotypes of highly effeminate men and butch women. Queer As Folk was considered to be a ground- breaking TV drama based on the lives of three gay men in Manchester. It was a graphic portrayal of the everyday lives and loves of the characters, it screened late night on Channel 4, and was the beginning of a more balanced portrayal of other sexual identities. More recently we’ve been offered an array of characters embracing sexual freedom. There is Kris Fisher, the cross-dressing bisexual student sexual freedom who is a part of the core cast of Hollyoaks, lovable Maxxie in Skins who is as promiscuous as Andrea Joyce celebrates the the rest of the characters, and the periodic foray representation of teenage sexuality in of an EastEnders character into homosexuality, Sonia Jackson being the most recent. Channel 4’s Sugar Rush, and explores However, until 2005 what was still lacking its construction through close textual was a TV drama aimed at a younger audience that positioned a more fluid sexual identity in analysis. the context of the everyday rather than one

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54 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre MM Brighton is as much of a character in this series as Sugar or Kim, with its bright lights, pier attractions and openly gay club scene. The fairground pier is the perfect visual representation of Kim’s life: her crush on Sugar takes her on a constant rollercoaster of emotions, this being the latest low. The speed of the fairground and the ferocity of Kim’s emotions are also mirrored in the camerawork and editing of this scene. The shot cuts quickly from a close-up to a mid-shot that follows Kim’s hand, pans down to the drawer and tracks up as the contents is pulled out and thrown to the floor. The hand- held camerawork disorientates the viewer and the increasing speed of the cuts, which are particularly fast as Kim tears Sugar’s photograph, is indicative of Kim’s anger. that made these ‘different’ identities a cause for The pace of the editing slows suddenly with concern or ridicule. Until recently, there was still the introduction of the non-diegetic soundtrack a gap in the representation of teenage sexuality. as Kim studies the drinks can with Sugar’s lipstick. Cue Sugar Rush. The shot cuts from the can to a mid-shot of Sugar Rush is a perfect example of teenage Kim’s face, allowing the viewer to see her reaction sexual freedom, the time when new and strange as the highly sexual representation of Sugar’s lips feelings emerge and experimentation is the remind Kim of the night before and the kiss they ‘norm’ or can always be labelled as ‘just a phase’ if shared. necessary. The programme is based on the novel The shot cuts back to a close-up of the can and by maverick journalist Julie Burchill. tracks it to Kim’s lips. The voiceover dips into Kim’s The first series of the TV drama was screened thoughts and acts as a sound bridge into the on Channel 4 in 2005. Sugar Rush shows the flashback of the kiss. life of 15-year-old Kim Daniels and is laden from The next shot is a close-up of Sugar and Kim the outset with slightly risqué content. The very in a nightclub, which is long enough to identify first scene of Episode 1 sees Kim in her bedroom Sugar, who is resplendent in the full glow of one masturbating with an electric toothbrush of the nightclub’s spotlight, this emphasising the under her duvet, before she is interrupted by amount of flesh she is exposing. her Dad bursting in on her. This classic scene of The shot quickly cuts to an extreme close-up embarrassing parents and the awkwardness of of Kim’s lips, slightly parted as Sugar comes into teenage years are illustrative of the themes of frame. As their lips meet the white flash signals Sugar Rush. the end of the flashback and the arrival back Using Sugar Rush to discuss representations into real time; we see Kim coming out of her of sexuality is a very fruitful exercise as much of daydream as she pulls the drinks can away from Series 1 follows Kim through her obsession with her lips, leaving a tiny smudge of Sugar’s lipstick. her best friend Sugar. The voiceover again acts as a narrative aid to A close analysis: Series 1 reveal Kim’s state of mind as the viewer is shown a mid-shot of Kim throwing the can across the Episode 8 room. Episode 8 in Series 1 opens the morning after Cutting to a new setting, a long, slightly low- Kim’s dreams have come true and she has shared angle, establishing shot shows a figure standing a long, lingering kiss with Sugar, only to be jilted in an almost Christ-like position at an altar, in minutes later, for a guy. front of a small group of seated people. The setting is the interior of Kim’s bedroom His orange jumper draws the viewer’s eye with archetypal iconography: posters on the straight to him, indicating his significance and wall, trainers and clothes strewn across the floor, also in contrast to the sombre setting, hinting at jewellery and makeup lying around on the top the forthcoming humour of the scene. of drawers, and a framed photo of ‘best friends’ The characters about to be introduced Sugar and Kim. The indication that Sugar is not are an acknowledgement of the historical just a friend but a lustful obsession is indicated stereotypical representations not only of through the diary-like notebook that Kim keeps homosexuals but also of people who are hidden in her drawer, the pages of which hide prejudiced against homosexuality. a photo of Sugar and a hand-drawn heart The quick transition from a fast zoom shot containing her name in pink pen, the classic to a mid-shot of the open armed ‘preacher’ is symbols of a teenage crush. accompanied by a non-diegetic swipe sound to A clear sign that Kim’s heart has been broken make the quick zoom appear more of a transition, is the frantic tearing up of Sugar’s photograph, again the voiceover of Kim adds context to the the throwing away of the tickets for the gig scene and explains a little of what is to come. they attended together and the highly symbolic The camera pans down the preacher’s arm and crushing of the once treasured possession, a directs the eye to the introduction of Belinda. drinks can covered in her lipstick. Her styling is stereotypical butch lesbian, from The use of the distant diegetic sound of her ripped jeans to the masculine-looking grey seagulls reminds the viewer of the seaside tank top, which exposes her toned and muscular location.

english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 55 MM arms. Her jewellery is simple and quite chunky, Fast zooms are used graphically to interpret to the stairs, cutting back briefly to capture Kim her hairstyle is soft to an extent but doesn’t draw the panic that Kim obviously feels, culminating looking relieved that she has gone. attention to her femininity and she isn’t wearing in an excellent example of the sexual gaze. A final point of view shot of Sugar as she any elaborate make-up. This gaze, historically in film and television, is walks up the stairs cuts off the top part of her One mid-shot frames Belinda and Kim heterosexual as the viewer is considered to be body and objectifies her, Sugar becomes a together, emphasising the visual differences the same. One unique feature of Sugar Rush is wiggling figure and a pair of exposed thighs to between them, Kim is a much more femininely- that lesbianism is not labelled as a phase. It is be gazed at. styled woman, wearing colourful clothes, lots of positioned as similarly normal as heterosexual The three scenes last only three minutes and jewellery and with a playful, soft hairstyle. desire. The way it does this is through a gaze that are arguably evidence of a wider intention by Cutting back to the preacher the camerawork can be interpreted as heterosexual, homosexual broadcasters to represent sexuality in a broader, is as awkward in its movement as in the previous or just plain sexual, depending on your taste. more responsible and informed way. You could, scene. The shot pans from his face to his hands, A typical over-the-shoulder shot follows however, argue that it is using the controversy suggesting the way he is conducting the session and then cuts to point-of-view shots of Sugar. still caused in some quarters by the unapologetic and seemingly controlling both Belinda and Gary, These include a panning shot from Sugar’s breast representation of sexual freedom to gain viewers. the next character to be introduced. area down her body to her thighs, showing I rate it as an excellent example of the fluidity Gary’s voice, gestures, body language and her exposed flesh and school uniform, a highly of desire for women by women, for men by well groomed appearance stereotype him as sexualised costume thanks to Britney Spears. men and for men and women by both men and a gay, camp man. The long-shot, which frames In this scene Sugar is the embodiment of women. Gary and the preacher together, represents the something that Laura Mulvey called ‘to-be- preacher’s patronising attempt to ‘cure’ Gary looked-at-ness’. In her seminal paper on ‘Visual Andrea Joyce teaches Media Studies at Long Road Sixth of the ‘disease’ of homosexuality. The repeated Pleasure’, Laura Mulvey stated that: Form College, Cambridge. close-ups of the preacher’s hands make it seem as in their traditional exhibitionist role women if he is trying to place a spell on his listeners; very are simultaneously looked at and displayed, Filmography fast zooms also emphasise the outrageousness of with their appearance coded for strong visual Sugar Rush (Channel 4, 2004) the statements being made by the preacher. and erotic impact so that they can be said to Again the non-diegetic music and Kim’s connote to-be-looked-at-ness Bibliography voiceover act as a sound bridge to move to the Mulvey, 1975 next scene. The combination of a slow panning shot of Braudy, L and Cohen, M (eds.): Film Theory A push-slide transition moves the viewer to Sugar’s body and the close-ups of her looking and Criticism: Introductory Readings (Oxford a new setting, the interior of a typical school directly into the camera position the viewer into University Press, 1999) corridor lined with lockers and populated by Kim’s point of view. We are asked to look at Sugar Miller, Toby (ed): Television Studies (BFI students going to and from classes. in the way that Kim looks at her, following Sugar Publishing, 2002)

Sugar Rush images courtesy of © Phil Fisk

56 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre MM tank man and the gold mine of serra pelada

Jerome Monahan evaluates the There is a paradox in talking of images that for example, photography has the potential to capture what it means to be free. In composing carry out a rather grotesque ideological trick. In construction, impact and influence and getting a shot, a photographer manages to discovering beauty in the humble, the inane of two iconic photographs which encapsulate a moment in a way that effectively and the decrepit, photographs have the effect puts a lid on the experience. Of course, such of rendering the plight of other human beings represent the antithesis of freedom in images if they are any good may enjoy their less immediate, more universal and somehow very different ways. moment in the public eye illustrating copy in a tolerable. In Sontag’s view the process exemplifies newspaper or as a part of a magazine spread. an inequitable distribution of power: But in a world of images, a picture celebrating ...one of the typical endeavours of portrait an individual’s resistance to oppression or the photographers, professionally protective plight of those seemingly trapped in a dreadful toward famous faces (like Garbo’s) which round of back-breaking work (the subject matter really are ideal, is the search for ‘real’ faces, of the two images considered here), are in generally sought among the anonymous, the danger of becoming just eye-candy for a dazed poor, the socially defenceless, the aged, the reader casually flicking the pages of a Sunday insane – people indifferent to (or powerless supplement. A shot that might have been taken to protest) the camera’s aggressions. with the best intentions to inspire our awe, Although neither of the photographers empathy and passion, is relegated to near equal considered here – Jeff Widener and Sebastião status with pictures of the season’s fashions and Salgado – spring from a background of advertisements for limited edition china figures. portraiture, it is important to consider to what There is another danger. It is one examined extent their famous images fall into the ‘beauty in Susan Sontag’s On Photography, first trap’ and what the implications of that beauty published in 1973. In a chapter entitled ‘The might be as time passes and the images are Heroism of Vision’ she discusses the way in which separated from their immediate context – photography has broadened the categories of Widener’s being Beijing of 5th June 1989 when what it is worth looking at: student protests were finally brutally repressed Photographic seeing meant an aptitude for by the Chinese authorities, and Salgado’s a discovering beauty in what everybody sees gold mine in the Brazilian state of Para circa but neglects as too ordinary. 1986. Of course, it is the power of these images The power of the camera in skilled hands to float free of their original context that ensures to render any subject matter attractive, to their cultural (and Media Studies) interest. Again make anything aesthetically pleasing may these are photographs that deserve to be a part seem fairly benign, but for Sontag it is deeply of everyone’s visual frame of reference partly problematic. In finding beauty among the poor, because the Widener shot is widely regarded as being one of the most famous images ever taken and second because such images continue to enjoy a varied ‘after-life’ – popping up in all sorts of incongruous contexts, their connotations shifting with every new reproduction. Commenting on this phenomenon to MM, Jeff Widener said: The picture can be seen all over. It has been used as cartoons and there are T-shirts, art pieces. The picture has taken on a life of its own and I have accepted that it will be used in many different ways. I am a photojournalist. I went to China to cover the news. The Tiananmen event was just another

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Copyright restrictions mean we are unable to include the image of Salgado’s ‘Workers in a Gold Mine’ in the downloadable edition of MediaMagazine 28. You can see this image in the print edition of the April 2009 issue.

58 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre MM news story. It just happened to be a big one. the marginal and the dispossessed. Many of It is a fair bet that Widener might object to this As a part of the same interview Widener his most famous images (including the one of accusation – after all his interest in the Tank Man explained how the image was a runner up for the gold miners focused on here) are the product incident was born of a desire to catch the essence 1989 Pulitzer Prize for ‘spot photography’. His of prolonged thematically-linked photographic of the oppression on the streets of Beijing definition of this category was: projects which have required him to rub and the bravery of the protestors exemplified A news event that happens such as a natural shoulders with his subjects over many months, by this act of defiance before the approaching disaster, man-made catastrophe, or any gaining their trust and a degree of invisibility tanks. Clearly, he had an agenda and it was not event that reflects an urgency or of massive that enables him to ‘capture’ them so candidly. a celebration of the restoration of the status quo interest to the public. A general news image There is nothing ‘smash and grab’ about Salgado’s in China following six weeks of student protests by contrast would be one taken at a press work. It is far removed from the constraints demanding the kind of political reforms that conference or some other organised news operating on Widener where the obligation is to were toppling Communist regimes in Europe at event. ‘Spot’ means an unexpected news come up with ‘spot’ pictures for the next day’s that time. However, in his analysis now of what happening. newspaper. Contrast each photographer’s relative he was witnessing then, there is a distinct macho His cool responses are perhaps those of a man positioning: Salgado teetering on the brink of the detachment to his words that appears to touch who has been asked once too often about this vast open-cast mine, within yards of the toiling the ‘invisibility’ issue raised by Sontag. According one shot. They are intriguing for all that, and put garimpieros or gold diggers, while Widener’s to Widener: Widener in a very different philosophical space vantage point is 800 metres from his subject on It was a courageous event and many young from that occupied by Sebastião Salgado. For the fifth floor of the Beijing Hotel. Here he gains people will get from that what they will. Widener, the Unknown Rebel or Tank Man shot a panoramic overview of the scene. To be fair, Personally for me, I think the guy was angry – neither title his own – during the crackdown he may have desired greater closeness to events and just had enough. It’s like poker. If you get on the Tiananmen Square unrest was, in the and it was a feat of ingenuity that he managed bullied too much in heads up play eventually end, just the result of another assignment in a to smuggle his cameras past the authorities that there is a risk that a player will go all in, even lifetime spent covering the world’s trouble-spots. day. In the hotel he avoided confrontation or if he has a bad hand. This desire to establish his broader experience mistreatment by units of the People’s Liberation It is even more likely that Salgado would without denying his single most famous shot Army which were at that point busy killing and find Sontag’s thesis far removed from his own emerges in a tellingly ambivalent website injuring protestors in their hundreds. work. The image in focus here emerged from homepage featuring the image alongside the Another of Sontag’s concerns about one among a series of assignments in the early caption ‘beyond tiananamen’ (http://www. photography concerns the lack of connection 1990s designed to ‘capture’ examples of the jeffwidener.com/h/). between the taker and the taken: most extreme forms of mass human labour in A disavowal of empathy, a disdain for the world. It was a quest that took him from the The work of Salgado message-mongering, a claim to be invisible Channel Tunnel, to the oil fields of Kuwait ablaze Sebastião Salgado came to photography late – these are strategies endorsed by most after the first Gulf War, and to his native Brazil in life having pursued a career as a professional professional photographers. The history to record the back-breaking labour of the gold economist. It seems that his damascene of photography discloses a long tradition diggers. In every instance, Salgado’s project was conversion came on a holiday in 1973 in East of ambivalence about its capacity for to celebrate the dignity of workers despite their Africa, during which he began to take shots partisanship: the taking of sides is felt to sometimes frightful circumstances – portraying with his wife’s camera. His work has always been undermine its perennial assumption that all them as ‘heroes’. At the same time the task highly political, often underwritten by a desire subjects have validity and interest. was also to carry out an ‘archaeology of the to articulate the struggles of the ordinary, industrial age’ – commemorating forms of

english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 59 MM Copyright restrictions mean we are unable to include the image of Salgado’s ‘Workers in a Gold Mine’ in the downloadable edition of MediaMagazine 28. You can see this image in the print edition of the April 2009 issue.

physical labour being replaced by mechanisation played out, and in Salgado’s it is as if he has found Jerome Monahan is a freelance journalist and a frequent and IT. a modern equivalent of the slave labourers of contributor to the Guardian and MediaMagazine. To accuse Salgado of a lack of empathy one ancient history – commemorating the collective feels would be the greatest insult. His concerns effort that raised pyramids and palaces. It is such and commitment are suggestive of the political associations that lie behind the mythic of these Links consciousness he brings to his work, but at the photographs. But in rendering their subjects For a full explanation of the Tiananmen Square same time there is a deep streak of romanticism somehow universal and aesthetically pleasing protests the Wikipedia account is a good in his images that manages to co-exist with the one can’t help feeling there is an injustice at starting point: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ brutality in many of the scenes he depicts. The work, not only to the subjects but also for the Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989 playwright Arthur Miller has suggested that viewer enraptured by their rich ‘ahistorical’ Jeff Widener’s ‘Tank Man’ image is discussed each of Salgado’s photographs is an ‘act of deep connotations. widely across the web: and there is a devotion’. And yet Salgado does not attempt to To return to specifics – those that know what very useful interview with him at: http:// sanitise his subjects. In the shot that’s our focus, happened to the ‘Tank Man’ have never come asianhistory.about.com/od/china/a/ he manages somehow, despite its stillness, clean. He was removed by security men soon WidenerIntervw.htm to suggest the bewildering, seething ant-like after Widener took his shot and was never seen scrabble – the ceaseless scraping and carrying again. Even his name is uncertain. Salgado also enjoys a detailed Wikipedia entry: in progress as the diggers work each owner’s 60 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ square metre plot, always digging downwards Sebasti%C3%A3o_Salgado – or complete the wearisome journey back up Salgado’s Workers – An Archaeology of a succession of perilous ladders to the lip of the Industrial Age is reviewed at: http:// the mine carrying sacks of soil. This ‘action’ is findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1306/ emphasised by the relative stillness of the central is_n11_v59/ai_14667624 figure, leaning on a post and with his arms nonchalantly folded. Further articles about Salgado and his workers We started with a paradox and we end project are catalogued at: with one. It is the photographer’s gift to see http://www.encyclopedia.com/ pattern where to the untrained eye there is doc/1G1-131819303.html only confusion. Both Widener and Salgado are Susan Sontag’s On Photography: http:// masters at composing a shot, and in doing so, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Photography creating something that manages to acquire lasting life. That ‘Tank Man’ has achieved such ‘Gold Miners of Serra Pelgado’ courtesy of © Salgado and NB Pictures. endurance may have surprised Widener in the ‘Tank Man’ by Jeff Widener courtesy of PA Photos. way that Salgado – always preferring to shoot in black and white – has as his project with every picture he takes. It is hard not to ignore how both images carry associations – particularly Biblical associations – that enable them to transcend the specifics of the moment at which they were taken. In Widener’s image a latter-day confrontation between David and Goliath is

60 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 61 MM

textual analysis in action

A2 Media student Kirsty Leslie analyses a sequence from Skins to explore its representation of disability issues.

62 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre MM

The sequence of Skins shows the beginning the fact that Tony is not entirely disconnected of the first episode of Season 2. In it we see from the world and still has some power over how people are dealing with main character his mind. The mid-shot of Maxxie shows him Tony’s disability as is shown through standing in the light from the stained glass people’s reactions, attitudes, preconceptions window. This image suggests biblical thoughts and opinions. We also see how audience and shows how Maxxie emanates kindness and expectations are challenged throughout the patience for Tony. sequence. We later see the striking difference between At the start of the episode the viewer is led what emotions Tony can and cannot express to believe that a funeral is taking place due with his new disability. He does not react to the to diegetic organ music and a church setting. dancer’s spectacle and cannot appreciate it but This is the first preconception of many, as the when riding on the bus to Maxxie’s home, a bus setting is actually a dance studio in a converted passes at high speed and Tony jumps, grabbing church not a working church as the organ at Maxxie’s hand. This is the only physical music may have led the audience to believe. As contact that Tony instigates throughout the the previous series ended with Tony’s accident, entire sequence. To emphasis the enormity of the audience assumes that it could be his this act the sound of the bus is amplified and funeral. However, this is not the case and the fast editing creates sharp tension which pulls scene actually begins with dancers. the audience into empathising with Tony. When There are three dancers; one is female, the characters finally arrive at Maxxie’s home, another is black and the other is Maxxie, who it is decorated with Maxxie’s dancing awards is homosexual. They act as a representative for and photos of him dancing in competitions, the versatility of human bodies and human dressed up in leotards. The character of nature in our multicultural society that is Maxxie’s Mother treats Tony with familiarity, the UK. Continuity editing is dropped for but after his accident, Tony has no recollection faster, edgier jump-cuts that highlight the of Maxxie’s mother, which is reinforced as the flexibility of the dancers. The camera jumps camera cuts her out of the shot. As she leans in between short mid-shots and tracks around to clean his face Tony flinches, demonstrating their bodies, showing the action from tilted his discomfort at her touch. The mise-en-scène angles, with close-ups of faces and limbs. This is claustrophobic and new to Tony. Maxxie tries reinforces the ductile nature of the dancers. to make Tony feel comfortable even though This image of pliancy acts as a substantial he is cutting up his food for him, stating contrast to our next shot, showing Tony, his casually ‘Here you go mate’. Overall this shows face in shadows sitting still and watching the a contrast of two different outcomes in life and action. His isolation is suggested through a need for the characters to get back to normal. the way he is shot, the darkness acting as a It forces the audience to face up to disabilities contrast to the light that Maxxie stands in, and and make their own decision as to whether the the emptiness of the frame showing how Tony character of Tony should have the same level of is once removed from the action and isolated respect as he did before the accident. Should by his disability. Although the mid-shot has his disability mean that we as the audience only enough light to show his body and facial perceive him any differently? features, this helps to communicate

english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 63 MM

Should his place in the narrative hierarchy of the first series now be questioned? Audience’s preconceptions are also challenged in other ways in this sequence. After the dance we see Maxxie and Tony walking along the street. They are stopped by a group of ‘Tweenies.’ A group of six 12-year-old girls lie across a car bonnet. They are dressed up to look older and are sexually aware of themselves. Their speech code and body language tell us they are more aware than they should be, but the idea of sweet little girls is long gone from this imagery. These girls again challenge the audience to confront their ideas of disability. One asks, ‘Are you mental?’ to which Tony replies, matter-of-factly, ‘Yes’. Tony is aware of his condition and how it has affected his life, so he is able to articulate a response without difficulty, which contradicts the idea that he might have a complex at all. The girls also acknowledge this as they point out he is still physically attractive despite his strange behaviour. We meet Tony’s mother in a totally different setting, a darkened bathroom surrounded by equipment to help with her son’s disability. This is accompanied by harp music that is suggestive of her dreaming about the past. The darkened room shows her low mood and state of mind with the equipment making her own home unfamiliar to her. The mother momentarily forgets that her own daughter is able-bodied and finally even pulls on the wrong cord; setting off an alarm instead of putting on the light. These actions illustrate the mother’s feelings of isolation and confusion in coming to terms with the disability of her son. This resonates with the audience, who must also learn how to adjust their own expectations in the face of the disability of such a main character within the series.

Kirsty Leslie is an A2 student at Long Road Sixth Form, Cambridge.

Images courtesy of Channel 4 extra.net press site.

64 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre GMTV the runners’ stories

With four and half GMTV operates a At any one time the Di Holmes, who runs the and hasn’t looked back Programme Assistants breakfast TV station scheme, insists a Media since. She says: million viewers a (otherwise known as employs five Programme degree isn’t essential I find the atmosphere day, who wouldn’t Runners) Scheme. It’s a Assistants. Currently these to becoming a Runner. when the live show is bottom rung of the ladder include 19-year-old Aaron Instead she looks for a on electric. Everyone is want to start their position but everyone Spendlow (see page certain level of academic committed to putting media career at has to start somewhere. 66) who studied Musical discipline in any subject out the best possible Although there’s no Theatre at college and area, coupled with relevant show. It’s a wonderful GMTV? But just who guarantee of a job upon 27-year-old Fraser Gibson work experience. If they environment to work gets their foot in the completion, every effort who joined the scheme make it to interview, Di in. door and what’s it is made to find one. The with a Politics degree looks for an awareness of GMTV’s Director of uniqueness of the scheme and a year of working at the world around them; Programmes, Peter McHugh really like to work for makes it tough to get a travel company under ‘I want to find out if they says a successful Runner the nation’s brightest onto and really tests your his belt. 23-year-old Jen know who the Shadow needs ‘Enthusiasm and the mettle once you’re in it. The Archer arrived at GMTV Chancellor is, what soaps realisation they’ve bagged breakfast show? company doesn’t advertise with an Honours degree they watch, which paper one of the best media Maria Brannigan for applicants; they don’t in Psychology and a they read and why, as well jobs you can get.’ Before need to. They receive Postgraduate Diploma in as a good knowledge of applying for a position, investigates. hundreds of unsolicited Journalism. She’s recently current affairs and popular though, Peter emphasises applications that are kept been promoted to Trainee culture.’ Interviewees are the importance of a dose on file for a limited period Researcher and is currently quizzed about what they of reality through work and referred to when a working on the News Desk. like and don’t like about the experience in a local paper, vacancy comes up. Operations Director programme and how they TV or radio station. would change it. Reality check Aaron’s story However, the reality In his interview, Aaron of bagging that fantastic stressed his passion for the job can come as a bit industry and emphasised of a shock. A Runner’s how hard he would work main responsibility is for the opportunity to to keep the office and become a Programme studio running smoothly, Assistant. After a spell of which can seem rather work experience he started humdrum after a while. on the nine-month long Duties include distributing scheme in October 2008. the post and newspapers, On top of the demands of a collecting numerous Runner’s job, Aaron spends pints of milk, arranging his days off in the GMTV guest and presenter travel Kids department because and accommodation, it’s an area he wants to printing and distributing learn more about. He says scripts, as well as sourcing his first job in TV has been and purchasing props ‘stressful and demanding for the show. Runners’ but a rewarding and shifts alternate between exciting challenge too.’ working on Lorraine Kelly’s programme GMTV with Jen’s story Lorraine and the Day Desk The week before her where they assist several interview, Jen recorded different programme GMTV every day and departments as needed. watched it whilst taking One week a month they notes on the main stories work night shifts when they and type of guests as well print scripts for the gallery as familiarising herself and studio. with the presenters and structure of the show. Ruby’s story She was enthusiastic, Fourteen years ago, determined and prepared Ruby Kuraishe thought the to move to London from odds were stacked against Scotland. She got the job her when she applied for

english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 65 a GMTV Researcher’s job on to be Producers and in the Media Guardian. Executive Producers in 1200 people applied for independent production the position at the then companies and other TV fledging breakfast TV stations. Many have chosen station. Although Ruby to go up through the ranks didn’t have enough at GMTV, while others experience to become a have left and returned Researcher, her thorough having gained experience programme knowledge elsewhere. along with her enthusiasm and work experience Katherine’s story placements instigated a Katherine Quinn is one of them. She joined new initiative at GMTV. As a Researcher, sourcing a difficult prop, in regional TV before GMTV on the Programme She was to become the Katherine left to work at seeing it on screen and returning as a reporter Assistants Scheme after first person on their new the BBC but has returned realising how it enhanced and subsequently a being a secondary school training scheme, the to GMTV where she is the production values of correspondent. teacher for four years and forerunner of today’s currently Deputy Series the programme item. But took a 50% pay cut to Programme Assistants Producer on GMTV With she says: Get real – and do the job because she Scheme. Ruby recalls the Lorraine. The lows were often forget the needed it to kick-start her experience as being a For a Runner to make it at 4am when pulling a money new career. Katherine was baptism of fire for both up to the next rung of the tray of milk around the If any candidate is under given an interview after parties. The reality of a slippery ladder to Trainee studio, contemplating the illusion that TV is a completing two weeks live newsroom was vastly Researcher, Peter McHugh my meagre salary ‘get rich quick’ profession, unpaid work experience different to the glamorous always looks for someone and wondering what the GMTV Programme and subsequently got a world she’d imagined. to go the extra mile. To on earth I was doing! Assistants Scheme provides job on the scheme. She ‘There were long hours, anticipate what someone However, I never just over £15,000 as a remembers making tea menial tasks, obscure needs before they have wanted to give it up salary. In exceptional at 3am, travelling across shopping errands, vicious to ask i.e. to get the daily and always looked to circumstances in other TV London to search for a senior producers and plenty batch of newspapers to the bigger picture. companies, Runners have specific astronaut’s outfit, as of stress...think Devil Wears him on time every day! Strong communication been known to work for well as collecting 100 pints Prada, without the fabulous Di Holmes adds that a skills are essential for just their travel expenses; of milk and cleaning the clothes and you won’t be good Runner is one who Runners along with a such was the profile of the kitchen surfaces on three far off!’ doesn’t just moan about sense of confidence and programmes and kudos floors! Ruby has since navigated a problem but comes up a cheerful nature. They attached to working on Never think it’s beneath her way through the with a suggestion on how have to be able to deal them. you just because you various levels of television, to solve it. with a variety of people With so many applicants have a degree in Media from Researcher to Director including the General for a few prized positions, Studies. I did it with to Producer to Series Fiona’s story Public, Correspondents, it’s clear the industry is as a smile on my face Producer to Executive Now a Producer at Researchers and Producers. competitive as ever. In the knowing how many Producer and most recently Granada TV’s This Morning, They need to be able to UK television workforce, people would want the Commissioning Editor for Fiona McLaren also started listen carefully to what producing over 450 TV opportunity I’d been Channel 4. Other alumni out on the Programme is being asked of them, channels, there are over given. of the scheme have gone Assistants Scheme. She but not be afraid to ask 18,000 freelancers working received a phone call from calmly for clarification day in, day out. Inevitably a friend at GMTV to say especially under stressful there will always be that their work experience circumstances. someone willing to take the person had dropped place of an apprentice who out and would she be Tiffany’s story hasn’t done their homework interested? It was Saturday As a GMTV and realised that attitude, and they needed her to Correspondent and their willingness to adapt start on the Monday. So she graduate of the Programme and learn is fundamental to cancelled the temporary job Assistants Scheme, Tiffany succeeding. she was due to start, and Royce (see page 65) has So which are you...a cog travelled from Derbyshire experienced life on both or a spanner? to London to sleep on a sides of the Runner’s friend’s floor for a week. desk. She says the scheme Maria Brannigan worked for Before she left GMTV, Fiona provided her with an GMTV as a Producer/Director made sure all the pertinent incredible opportunity and for 10 years. She is currently people knew who she was, although some aspects re-training to become a Media so when a Runner’s vacancy of the job are incredibly Studies teacher. came up she got an mundane it’s important interview and subsequently to have a positive attitude the job. As a Runner, and ‘believe in yourself Fiona says she got great because no one else will’. satisfaction from being part Tiffany joined the scheme of the production process with a Journalism degree however small a cog. She and having completed her enjoyed the buzz from training at GMTV worked

66 MediaMagazine | April 2009 | english and media centre or our next issues, we’ve gone for Big Themes, which you can interpret in any way that grabs Fyou, in relation to any media – as long as they relate to some aspect of film, media, or e-media study, or the debates around them. We’ve given you some starting point keywords – but we know you’ll have far more interesting ideas. And we’re not just after articles – you can send artwork, photography, magazine spreads, or even 2009 just ideas about the sorts of stuff you’d like /2010 to read in MediaMag. See below for details.

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Drama Reality Fantasy Humour Deadline:Deadline: 14t14thh May 2009 Deadline:D 14th SeptemberS 20092009 Deadline: 9th NovNovemberovember 2009 Deadline: 8th FebruaryFebbruary 22010010

soapsoap melodramamelodrama realismrealism Who HeroesHeroes What makess you romance western representationepresentation Galacticaactica superheroessuperheroes laughlaul gh?

crime Bond action reality TV Watchmen Being Stand-up sitcom adventure news documentary Human magic satire surrealism history cross-platform reportage docudrama games SF comics black comedy Boosh

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english and media centre | April 2009 | MediaMagazine 67 APRIL 2009: THE FREEDOM ISSUE M M MediaMagazine

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Menglish and media centre issue 28 | aprilM 2009

Freedom from Hollywood Diploma students on freedom Sexual freedom TV drama – institutions and audiences Skins Cross-media platforms english andmedia centre Dead Set ssue 28|april 2009 | i

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