DECEMBER 2016 ISSUE 58

BREXIT THE CURIOUS REFUGEES IN CONCEPT OF GENRE THE MEDIA STRANGER THE AGE OF THINGS STREAMING GOGGLEBOX MEDIA AND DIVERSITY Contents

MediaMagazine is published by the English and Media Centre, a non-profit making organisation. The Centre publishes a wide range of classroom materials and runs courses for teachers. If you’re studying English 16 at A Level, look out for emagazine, also published by the Centre.

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04 Making the Most of MediaMag 16 Stream Age Kicks iTunes, Spotify, Tidal – where do you 06 A Hustle for Life: Refugees in the get your music? And more importantly, Media do you pay for it? Ian Bland talks you The English and Media Centre Malcolm Hebron explores the through the search for a new business 18 Compton Terrace misconceptions in the ways migration model for music distribution. London N1 2UN and refugees are reported in print Telephone: 020 7359 8080 and in documentary television, 19 The Power of the Media Fax: 020 7354 0133 and suggests some documentary Steph Hendry considers the power Email for subscription enquiries: texts which represent a bigger of the media in relation to the [email protected] and more sympathetic picture. development of technologies and their impact on social change. Pathetic Fallacy: Representing Editor: 12 Jenny Grahame Brexit 22 Internet Research for Film Studies Jonathan Nunns looks back at Any self-respecting film student knows Copy-editing: Andrew McCallum the carnage provoked by the that informed and critical online EU Referendum, and takes the research is essential – but where do you Subscriptions manager: Bev St Hill media to task for their coverage start? Roy Stafford introduces some of of events and individuals. the most useful film websites around. Design: Sam Sullivan Newington Design Print: This magazine is not photocopiable. Why not subscribe to our web package S&G Group which includes a downloadable and printable PDF of the current issue? Cover: Stranger Things (© Netflix) Tel 020 7359 8080 for details.

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24 John Williams: The Man with the 56 How to Fly Like Bond: An Interview Midas Touch 40 Goom on Gerbner’s Cultivation with Jamie Chalkley Will Rimmer identifies five key Theory Lucky student Ashleigh Brown moments in the career of legendary interviews James Bond’s stunt Hollywood composer John Williams. 42 BCOMS: Encouraging a More double helicopter pilot. Diverse Sports Media 30 Canons and Battleships Football journalist Leon Mann 60 The Witch: A Feminist Review Mark Ramey discovers why the describes his own route into sports Owen Davey recommends a new montage editing of Soviet director journalism, and the importance of a horror film with a difference. and theorist Eisenstein has earned diverse and inclusive sports media. him his reputation as one of the most 64 Aaron Sorkin: Speaking Sorkinese important filmmakers of all time. 46 Once Upon a Time: The Many Screenwriter Brendan Duggan Re-tellings of Beauty and The Beast explores the career and appeal of 34 Watching Me, Watching You Sinead McCausland investigates his hero, the acclaimed film and Emma Calway explores the the many different versions and TV screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. enduring popularity of Gogglebox media forms of a classic fairy-tale. with its audiences. 66 Social Media and Black Identity 50 Stranger Things: The Curious A Level student Conor Coleman 37 Who Watches the Watchers? A Concept of Genre considers how social media can be Postmodern Reading Claire Kennedy welcomes us to used as a channel to reconstruct, Matt Kaufman considers what a strange new world where sci- re-imagine, or reinforce black identities. Gogglesprogs and Gogglebox fi meets fantasy in the 1980s, can teach us about the slippery and throws up a whole new concept of postmodernism. challenge to ideas about genre.

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Watching Me, Watching You: Pathetic Fallacy: Gogglebox and Googlesprogs Representing Brexit Try your own Gogglebox-style research experiment, this time Not unlike this article in response to the Brexit using recent clips from YouTube and other social media vote, on 9th November the world awoke to platforms rather than TV extracts. The aim is to explore how discover that the unthinkable had happened different people respond to, and talk about, online texts. and Donald Trump had been elected 45th • Create a playlist of 10 clips which you feel reflect a President of the United States of America. diverse range of interests and styles – anything from cats Many comparisons have been made between to music to news or political items to comedy clips. the two elections; but while the resulting • Play them on a big screen to a selected group of family outcomes may stem from similar discontents or friends, preferably covering a range of age-groups, and the neglected voices of disenfranchised and ask them to talk about each clip for 2-3 minutes, groups in society, the (well-documented) role while you record or take notes on their comments. You of the media in each case was very different. could also film these discussions to include the body • Pick one of the following media platforms, language and facial expressions of your participants. and research how the Trump team Analyse your findings, considering the following: exploited it in the election campaign: ––What differences do you notice in people’s ––Print: remembering that the US press reactions to different genres of clip in terms of operates very differently, with very age, gender, familiarity with digital formats, etc? few national newspapers – in 2014 ––Are there any particular features which distinguish there were 1331 daily newspapers an online clip from a TV extract? Are they ––TV: from the televised Presidential interchangeable, or do you find your group discussing Debates to Saturday Night Live coverage online material in a different way from film or TV ––Online, including social media. clips? Were you surprised by any reactions? • Use the articles below as the basis for a short • Discuss with your participants the experience of presentation on international (including watching in a group the sorts of texts they would UK) press reaction to Trump’s election. normally watch alone on their phones or tablets. Do the http://tinyurl.com/h3jo2k6 (Guardian, clips gain or lose when watched on a bigger screen? on reaction of UK press 10.11.16) • Present your playlist and the responses to it to the rest of http://tinyurl.com/oftgeur (Guardian the class, and compare your own findings with theirs. Are on reaction of world press 10.11.16) you able to draw any conclusions from the experiment?

4 Internet Research • With a partner, choose a search relevant to your current area of study and test this article out with two or three of the sites recommended in this article. For example, if you’re studying the horror genre, home in on Stephen Follows’ 22 website, and his ‘Most Culturally Important Horror Movies’. This will give you a sense of the methodology behind Follows’ research, and the sort of qualititative and quantative information this can yield. Move on to another site – e.g. screendaily.com – and consider the genre from an industry or economic perspective; then home in on an individual movie or two, using data from Press Packs and distribution sites, and reviews aggregated from Rottentomatoes. com. Share your findings with the class. What did each site add to your understanding of the topic you were studying? • Roy Stafford, author of this article, was far 30 too modest to include in his list his very own website, ‘The Case For Global Film’ Canons and (https://the-case-for-global-film) which aims to be ‘Discussing everything that isn’t Battleships Hollywood (and a little that is).’ This site is This article refers to the huge influence very helpfully explained, and claims that, of early Soviet film-maker Eisenstein’s Our aim is to introduce prospective theory of montage editing. You can viewers to films that they might not see examples of Eisenstein’s five types otherwise see or to give them ideas of montage on YouTube: https://www. about films they have just seen. It youtube.com/watch?v=MzXFSBlQOe4 isn’t primarily to evaluate films or to The article also introduces the judge them on a 5 point scoring chart Kuleshov Effect, which we have tried [...] Rather than describe the plot, our to illustrate on pages 32 and 33. Have reviews are more likely to highlight a go at designing your own Kuleshov issues, discussion points and, especially, sequence, either in still shots or on ways in which the film might be used as video, and prepare a short lesson for a case study in Film or Media Studies. a GCSE Media group which will help them to prepare for their practical • Pick any one of the films reviewed on this site production work on TV crime drama. that you are familiar with, and compare the review with a range of others of the same film The following links may help: from a range of different sources, including http://www.elementsofcinema. the tabloid press and some of the other sites com/editing/kuleshov-effect- listed in the article. How do they differ? What’s and-juxtaposition/ the value of this sort of diverse approach? https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=4gLBXikghE0

5 Exodus Credit: Keo Films for BBC for Keo Films Credit:

6 Malcolm Hebron explores the differences in the ways migration and refugees are represented in print and in documentary television, and suggests some documentaries which construct a bigger and more sympathetic picture. Credit: Twenty Twenty Productions Twenty Ltd Twenty Credit:

The Refugee Camp: Our Desert Home he early 21st century has been characterised by huge global issues: among them climate change, carnage in the Middle East, the rise of fundamentalism, and an ever- increasing gap between rich and poor. The impact of these developments is nowhere more clearly demonstrated than in patterns of migration and the movement of homeless people around the world. The movement of people from one country to another for economic reasons can be relatively peaceful and often welcomed, but recently has exposed hostile responses from some host communities, as we have seen from the Brexit debate. Economic migration – travelling to find work – is subject to various regulations such as visa and passport controls, which have been the focus of heated debates in recent months. But more disturbingly, beyond this ‘economic migration’ lie the unregulated and ‘The duty is on dangerous journeys of those forced to every human move elsewhere being to help to flee war, famine, religious persecution each other in and poverty, this crisis’. which constitute the movement of the world’s refugees. The numbers involved in this are so vast they are hard to comprehend: the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) reports on its website that ‘nearly 34,000 people are forcibly displaced every day as a result of conflict and persecution’. Currently an estimated 65.3 million people in the world have been displaced from their home. Most of these move elsewhere within their own country, and are barely picked up on the news. But 21.3 million seek a home beyond their own borders, and attract the attention of the global media. Half of these refugees are under 18.

7 UKIP leader, Nigel Farage, with 'Breaking Point' poster, during EU Referendum Campaign Credit: DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty Images LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/Getty DANIEL Credit:

and threatening mass, parasitically living off the settled countries of the West. In any tabloid scare story about migrants/refugees, there is rarely any analysis of the causes of the refugee crisis. Any such analysis would run the risk of complicating the picture of a deluge of scroungers, and might even lead us to think of them as human beings. Dehumanising refugees is the speciality of deliberately incendiary writers like the columnist Katie Hopkins, who has notoriously compared refugees (calling them migrants, of course) to ‘cockroaches’, labelled them ‘feral’ (like wild beasts) and called for gunships to be sent to blow them out of the water. It’s easy to direct

Credit: Twenty Twenty Productions Twenty Ltd Twenty Credit: one’s anger at Hopkins, but that would only feed into just the kind of Twitter frenzy that The Refugee Hostile Media Coverage media proprietors want; it’s less easy to accept Camp: Our that such statements exist primarily because Desert Home How has the media portrayed the refugee they sell newspapers, and are thus popular with crisis? In the British press, a great deal of the owners, editors, advertisers and the reading language and the imagery has been hostile. public. The notorious UKIP poster used during Refugees are often labelled as migrants, to create the Brexit campaign, which showed a line of the impression that they are travelling by choice, refugees and carried the message ‘Breaking Point’, rather than fleeing a genuine disaster. A quick used imagery very similar to a Nazi film, and Google Images search of newspaper headlines played on the same fears of invasion by aliens. reveals a shocking montage of misrepresentation, in which refugees are described as a swarm, The Power of the Image horde or tide, marauding and invading their way across the world. They are held responsible However, not all media coverage of refugees for their own condition, even – or especially – has been so negative. Sometimes a single image when the West itself has contributed to it. Such can point our thoughts in another direction, language deliberately creates the impression in like the iconic photos of a young Turkish police readers’ minds that refugees are a dangerous officer holding the body of Aylan Kurdi, a three-

8 A paramilitary police offi cer carries the lifeless body of Aylan Kurdi, 3 Credit: AP/Press Association Images Association AP/Press Credit:

year-old Syrian drowned in an attempt to reach to remain in their own country, often under the Greek island of Kos. A remarkable example desperate conditions. But a smartphone is of a more searching and humane approach not a luxury for a refugee. As the associated to the issue is Exodus: Our Journey to Europe, a Open University webpage explains, it is a vital three-part BBC series broadcast in the summer necessity, allowing refugees to navigate using of 2016. The title ‘Exodus’ refers to the biblical GPS co-ordinates, to contact coastguards and story of Moses leading the Jewish people from find out about medical and legal procedures slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. In this in the countries where they find themselves. case, the refugees were not Jewish, but from Syria They can also use photos to give authorities (fleeing civil war), Afghanistan (fleeing the Islamic evidence of the brutality they have suffered. fundamentalist Taliban) and Gambia (escaping At the same time, a mobile can also endanger the poverty of sub-Saharan Africa). The makers a refugee; states persecuting individuals can of the programme, Keo films, wanted to illustrate use their phone signals to track them. For the what is actually involved in these dangerous programme-makers, there were interesting journeys across thousands of miles, and to help logistical difficulties: crossing a border means us to relate to refugees as individuals, rather than changing the SIM card and, with it, a phone nameless members of a huge mass. Near the start number, so keeping track of all the participants of their journey, the producers gave smartphones was a challenge. The producers were also not with extra cards to 12 refugees, and asked them allowed to give any help to the subjects of the to film their experiences. The final film was film, since that would contravene international edited from the video logs of seven of them. law on abetting illegal immigrants; so the phones could not be used for any exchange The Role of the Smartphone of information that might help the users – for example, warning about a border patrol. Sometimes Westerners are surprised to see refugees with smartphones, assuming that it means they cannot be all that needy. And of Exodus: Telling Human Stories course not all refugees are without funds: in The great achievement of Exodus is to help fact, those we see are usually those who are us to understand individual stories. A television sufficiently well-off to have been able to raise series is uniquely placed to do this, as it can money to pay people-smugglers by selling allow time for a relationship between viewer their house, business and possessions. The and subject to develop. We first meet 11-year- most impoverished cannot do that, and have old Isra’a, and three generations of her family,

9 including a disabled sister. Their home in Syria In the course of Exodus, the evidence from has been bombed and they have been in Turkey smartphones is complemented by regular for three months, waiting for a dinghy to make footage from a crew and (sometimes harrowing) the risky trip to the Greek islands. Later we meet interviews to camera. We witness things it would another Syrian, Hassan, tortured by Syrian police be impossible to see without the smartphone for criticising the government. evidence of the refugees themselves: what it is We meet others – Anas, a teacher like to be in a crowded dinghy as the water is Nearly 34,000 shot at by a sniper as he leaves coming in; the back of a lorry where Anas almost people are forcibly Aleppo (‘there are many ways suffocates; smugglers extorting money from you can die in Aleppo’, he tells more than thirty passengers on the back of a displaced every us), and the Syrian Kurd Ahmad, single jeep in the African desert. There are chaotic day as a result whose village has been taken scenes as crowds wait on the Serbia-Croatia over by ISIS Islamic extremists, border for days in freezing cold and rain, and of conflict and and who is trying desperately shots of desperate attempts to get from the Calais persecution’. That to get to Britain where his wife ‘Jungle’ onto lorries going to the UK. Off camera and daughter can join him. we learn of deaths, kidnapping and one refugee gives a total of Another refugee is Sadiq, a being caught at the airport with a fake passport. 65.3 million people remarkably optimistic Afghan, Because the refugees can film only themselves who inexplicably wants to go and those around them, we barely see the other in the world who to Finland, even though he has ‘actors’ in the drama: police, airport security have been displaced never even seen a picture of staff, smugglers all hover just offstage. There are it. In the final programme we bright spots in the generally desolate picture: from their home follow the journey of Alaigie, Anas eventually makes it to the UK, and is sent making the journey from to Wakefield while his claim is processed. There, Gambia across Africa and through Libya with a family simply invites him to come and live with the hope of arriving in Italy. From what we see them. ‘This is the heart of England,’ he says. Anita Rani in The Refugee on the screen, it is clear that none of them is Other statements by the refugees in Exodus Camp: Our hostile, marauding or seeking anything other stick in the mind. Often they seem both simple Desert Home than security and the chance to make a living. and profound, such as a conversation between

10 Productions Twenty Ltd Twenty Credit: Documentary television can correct the Credit: Keo Films for BBC for Keo Films Credit: overwhelmingly negative impression of refugees given elsewhere in the media, and remind us of the humanity of those at the sharp end of the Exodus world’s conflicts.

Isra’a and her father Tarek which movingly brings Both these programmes illustrate the ability out the attitudes of different generations: of documentary television to correct the overwhelmingly negative impression of refugees Father: Our goal is to rest. given elsewhere in the media, and to remind Daughter: Our goal is to build a new life. us of the humanity of those at the sharp end of One refugee on the Serbia-Croatia border: the world’s conflicts. No programme can fully address the many issues – of infrastructure, The duty is on every human being economics, education and so on – which are to help each other in this crisis. raised by the refugee crisis. While we respond emotionally to the stories before us, we may Refugees beyond Europe: Our not have sufficient information to formulate practical solutions to the complex problems Desert Home involved. But a television documentary can give In covering such a global topic, any us faces and images to retain in our minds as documentary is bound to focus on a certain we read the statistics and listen to the bigoted aspect of the issue. The individuals in Exodus are rhetoric of politicians – most terrifyingly all making their way to Europe, which suggest politicians like President-elect Donald Trump, that most refugees end up there; but in fact whose response to the Syrian refugee crisis is poorer countries take a far greater proportion to declare simply, ‘We don’t want them’. And of the world’s refugees: one of the countries meanwhile each day a new exodus for thousands which hosts most is Jordan, to the south of Syria. begins as they are driven from their homes and Another series broadcast on BBC is The Refugee set out, in Alaigie’s words, ‘to hustle for life’. Camp: Our Desert Home, which takes us to the huge camp of Zaatari, where 80,000 Syrians now Malcolm Hebron teaches at Winchester School. live. Over time a makeshift camp of tents has grown into a city, with supermarkets, a hospital, schools, a high street and sports fields. Unlike References Exodus, this documentary is filmed by a standard http://www.open.edu/openlearn/whats- camera crew and shows us aspects of the camp on/tv/exodus-our-journey-europe through the eyes of a presenter (Anita Rani), her colleagues, and interviews with Zaatari’s residents. Once again, the welcome focus is on the lives and personalities of individuals. We meet a couple about to get married, visit the home of a baker, and witness some harrowing footage of the wounded in a hospital. These refugees are not trying to get to Europe; they want above all to return to their own country when it is safe. In the meantime, the camp becomes another small country, with its laws and customs.

11 Jonathan Nunns looks back at the carnage provoked by the EU Referendum, and takes the media to task for their coverage of events and individuals.

12 Pathetic fallacy is a literary term for the attribution of Soundbites cut through; they make human emotions and actions the complex seem simple and self- to animals and other parts of nature, particularly the evident, seductive answers that mask weather and landscape. the truth whilst appearing to offer it.

n a summer night in 2016 a teacher political theatre, a rollercoaster ride fast enough peered from his window, his attention to make you lose your lunch. Great source attracted by sharp and repeated cracks of material for a future movie or box set, including thunder. Within seconds the darkening lots of BAFTA-worthy meaty acting roles. How skies produced a downpour that briefly would David Cameron be played? A feckless false flooded the street. Soon a river flowed hero brought down by over-reaching ambition? where cars had driven minutes before. A sad and deluded Walter Mitty, thinking himself I should say from the off that I was on the the action star, sure of escaping doom with a ‘Remain’ side in the EU Referendum. However, smirk and a zinger? Or the tragic noir protagonist, despite my hopes, I had a growing suspicion in only too aware of the gathering darkness but the days leading to June 23rd that the political due to his fate (and fatal flaw) unable to change momentum was with ‘Leave’. Real-life had his path, however awful the consequences? provided the pathetic fallacy. It couldn’t What about Michael Gove and Boris Johnson? have been more stereotypical had this It would be worth changing profession to get to article begun with ‘It was a dark and play one of them (although the years of acting stormy night’. However, in this most training and stint at RADA might put you off). controversial and divisive of campaigns, was Nigel Farage! Who could play him? (Hugh Laurie there another kind of pathetic fallacy? One would be good, about the right age and he unrelated to the weather? One in which, as the does a great posh cad.) Great fun to play villains; politicos would have it, the British people had they get all the best lines. Probably more fun to been offered a false prospectus – or to put it more watch than to live through however; chancers plainly, a pack of lies that dissolved like ice in the playing with the future of millions works better sun the moment the votes had been counted? as a Netflix binge than experienced live. Welcome to the New Age of post-truth politics. Interestingly, within days of the Exit vote Gove Appropriately, this was a moment of terrific and Farage had left the stage and would not be staying to repair what they had unravelled. Boris, his dreams of being a shoe-in for PM in tatters, would have gone too, were it not for the actual new PM, Teresa May, rubbing his nose in the result. The upshot was that Boris became the perma-dishevelled new broom in the (very serious) role of Foreign Secretary, a man ‘whose personality made him look like he had been rolled on by a horse and seduced by it afterwards’ (Clive James, the Guardian, 30th July 2016) Was this the right man to lead the UK out of Europe? Perhaps best not to get into the Boris credibility issues after the Brexit promises turned to dust. Surreal? Certainly – and just as much postmodern as post-truth. ‘Belief is So Often the Death of Reason...’ (Game of Thrones) So how did we get here? Representation was, as so often, the key. The various Leave campaigns

13 had the best soundbites: ‘save £350 million a week for the NHS’; ‘take back control’; ‘end mass migration’ – all this plus ‘gain a stronger economy’ and ‘get the trade without the red tape’. The beautiful ‘sunlit uplands’ of a post-Brexit future beckoned. All simple positives and no negatives, the soundbites loyally repeated ad infinitum by the print and online press, most of whom were overwhelmingly pro-Leave. Rupert Murdoch had much to gain from Brexit. When asked why he supported the Leave campaign, he was alleged to say: ‘When I go into Downing Street, they do what I say; when I go to Brussels, they take no notice.’ TV news followed suit, but for different reasons. Unlike the partisan press, as ever looking out for its proprietors’ or editors’ best interests, the BBC, ITV, and C4 gave huge coverage to Johnson, Gove and Farage, the three self-styled Brexiteers, because there were only a limited number of people they could turn to. Due to ‘When I go into the relative obscurity of pro-Brexit standard-bearers compared to the Kane’s corrupted press boss Charles Kane joked Downing Street, large number of high profile Remain ‘You provide the prose poems and I’ll provide they do what voices, OFCOM broadcasting rules the war’. Soundbites cut through; they make the on fair screen time meant the three complex seem simple and self evident, seductive I say; when I Brexiteers never seemed to be off- answers that mask the truth whilst appearing go to Brussels, screen, whilst the Remainers were, to offer it. In comparison to the post-truth ironically, diluted by their numbers, Brexit onslaught of Leave, the doom-mongers they take no creating a cacophony of voices, of Remain had taken ‘a spoon to a knife fight’. notice.’ (Rupert none of which were heard clearly. When it seemed things could get little stranger, It didn’t help that the Remain group a week before the vote, Farage’s Leave.eu group Murdoch) had a rotten script, focused on the constructed such a blunt appeal to bigotry and bleak and miserable outlook for a xenophobia that it shocked the official Vote post-Brexit future. This they tediously explained Leave campaign into a rapid repudiation lest via exchange rates, statistics and supply side they got the nasty scent of it on their political economics, fronted by a dull cast of doom- ambitions. The ‘Breaking Point’ poster (see mongering bankers and economists, waving page 8) did the job. The message was clear: their scythes and predicting financial and social vote Brexit, or migrants will swamp Britain. No Armageddon. The insurgents of Leave were able matter that the poster featured Syrians fleeing to be the buccaneers of Brexit, unshackled by war, not EU nationals seeking work. No matter reality, fleet of foot and fancy-free, to project a that the Syrians were heading not for Britain, heroic and compelling political narrative as a but for Slovenia (en-route to Germany). The result. As Michael Gove commented, ‘This country message was very, very, clear. The detail gets is tired of experts’ – a great one-liner which forgotten but the image, the representation, allowed Leave, in a single sentence, to dismiss remains. Simple to understand, easy to believe. and undermine the massed experience of every The brutal irony came later that day, with the ‘expert’ who contradicted them. After all, it’s murder of the MP Jo Cox, an inclusive, pro- much more fun to be Jack Sparrow. He makes a migrant, pro-European, gunned down and better hero than say, Steve Jobs (or his successor, stabbed by a far right fanatic yelling ‘Britain First’. Tim Cook) and he plays a whole lot better with audiences: take a look at the box office for Looking for the (Br)-exit Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs (2015) compared to The weeks following the leave vote were that for Pirates of the Caribbean (2003). Jack may tumultuous. The Brexiteers largely evaporated, be more fun, but would you trust him to run having ‘taken back control’ – in other words, anything? Not so much – he is made up after having split the nation on geographic, all. As Mark Twain observed, ‘never let the truth educational, ethnic and class lines with the get in the way of a good story’. Or as Citizen opposing sides viewing each other with mutual

14 mistrust and loathing. Each stereotyped the other; on Quotes from the Guardian one side, an out of touch ‘moneyed metropolitan elite’, on the other ‘Shrek-faced Conservative men dominated the bigots’. Elsewhere, there coverage, as did reports backing a vote were heavily publicised to leave the EU. The detailed study of killing sprees and terrorist 2,378 articles for the report, UK press coverage of attacks across Europe, whilst the EU Referendum, found 41% were pro-Leave, in America, the Republican while 27% were pro-Remain. Once reach and Presidential Candidate, circulation figures were factored in, 48% of all Donald Trump (aka ‘The articles were pro-Leave with six out of the nine Tangerine Mussolini’) national newspapers surveyed in favour of Brexit. talked seriously about building a ‘beautiful’ wall to keep Mexicans out and banning Muslims Jeremy Corbyn was the only Labour from entering the USA. MP in the top 10 of those cited. Image matters; and during However, as the eighth most quoted a time some have likened politician, he was cited in just 3% of Pixabay to the 1930s (we all know articles in the survey of coverage dominated by how well that ended) we Conservative men, including David Cameron, should take care what we watch and read, and Boris Johnson and George Osborne although what we take from it. Mark Twain once observed: not all the coverage of these men was positive. ‘A lie travels around the world whilst the truth is putting on its shoes’; was this ever more so? The media provides instant global access to information and depending on who holds the megaphone, it can often be the memorable lie that is shouted loudest and sticks longest. The poet W.B. Yeats, writing after World War 1, made a comment that was much referenced during summer 2016: ‘The best lack all conviction, the worst are full of passionate intensity’. Who, amongst the voices of the Referendum, does that best describe? How complicit was our media? Did it help ‘lies travel’? Did it amplify the ‘intensity’? The years after Brexit will provide their-own answer. Has it been pathetic? Has it been a fallacy? Judge for yourself.

Jonathan Nunns is Head of Media Studies at Collyer’s College and moderates for a major awarding body.

‘A lie travels around the world whilst the truth is putting on its shoes’ (Mark Twain)

15 iTunes, Spotify, Tidal – where do you get your music? And more importantly, do you pay for it? Ian Bland talks you through the search for a new business model for music distribution.

f you’re a fan of pop music, particularly in its globally dominant rap/RnB mode, then 2016 has been your year so far. One after another, the reigning giants of the industry have released new albums – Rihanna, Beyoncé, Drake, Kanye West, even the ever- enigmatic Frank Ocean got in on the act, releasing not one, but two albums in the space of a single weekend. So, with all this great content to revel in, there could hardly be a better time to be a music fan, right? Not necessarily. If you happen to be the kind of avid fan who wants to listen to each of these releases without delay as soon as they drop (and when you see all those fire emojis piling up on your timeline, why wouldn’t you?) you’d need subscriptions to at least two different streaming services to go with the one that you’ve probably already got to the biggest streaming service of them all (Spotify). In other words, it would cost you. Welcome to the world of ‘windowing’ and the battle to be the last streaming service left standing. May the brand with the deepest pockets win. The way in which each of these releases has been marketed and shared with the world tells us a great deal about the confusion and flux that is the hallmark of the music industry in 2016. Film producer William Goldman famously said of Hollywood, ‘Nobody knows anything’ – words that could just as easily apply to the contemporary music industry. And the biggest thing of all that nobody knows is how to make money from making music. Rihanna’s Anti The year of huge releases began in January with the arrival of Rihanna’s Anti, her first album release since 2012. For some artists, a four-year gap between albums would be nothing; for Rihanna who released virtually an album a year between 2005 and 2011, this was a lifetime. In 2015 she released three singles, none of which would subsequently appear on Anti. The long-standing relationship between singles and albums, like so much else in music, was being re-thought. Many people believed that the album was imminent when the artist held an event at an LA gallery in October 2015 revealing Anti’s cover art, but for Rihanna fans the frustrating wait still had another three months to run. When the album did arrive, it was in an unexpectedly chaotic manner. In March 2015, Rihanna was one of 16 artists who joined Jay Z on stage in New York as he unveiled Tidal, an artist-owned streaming service that promised exclusive content from its megastar shareholders and offered music fans audio of a quality that surpassed

16 that available on rival services such as Spotify. The battle was on. So it was hardly surprising when Anti premiered as a Tidal Exclusive. Only it wasn’t really an exclusive. For one thing, Samsung had paid for one million downloads of the album to be distributed free of charge (a similar strategy to that used with the release of Tidal boss Jay Z’s Magna Carta in 2013); and for another, a glitch on Tidal meant that anyone willing to give the site their details could also download the album for absolutely nothing. If any doubt remained that we were in a post-paying for music world, this was it. The world might not have been paying for Anti, but it was certainly listening to it; her collaboration with Drake for a track on the album, Work, has been one of the most ubiquitous songs of the year. The paying would come later, as her Anti tour visited the stadiums of the world, and the star signed numerous lucrative sponsorship deals, from Puma to Dior. Kanye’s Life of Pablo Another artist on stage at the Tidal launch was Kanye West, who became the next superstar out of the blocks in February 2016 with The Life of Pablo. West debuted the album, as well as his latest clothing range, at a gigantic Madison Square Garden bash, where a full complement of Kardashians on the front row guaranteed high media visibility. Originally thought to be titled ‘Swish’, the album was made available as a Tidal exclusive; but the name of the album wasn’t the only thing West tinkered with. Tracks were added and edited in the days between the New York launch and the album going public. And once West started tinkering he couldn’t stop, as he redefined the concept of the album as a fluid entity, a non-stop work in progress rather than a finite, finished project. West’s perfectionism, his willingness to rethink what an album might be, could only really be possible in the age of streamed music. Indeed, he went so far as to say that the album would only ever be available as a Tidal stream – a pledge he has since gone back on now that it can be streamed via other services and purchased as a download on his own website. As more and more albums live nowhere but in the cloud, such post-release modification might well become the norm. Making Lemonade? Two of the Tidal 16 down, the biggest of them to go. Enter Mrs Carter, Beyoncé Knowles. Having rewritten the rules of how to launch an album once already, with 2013’s so-called Visual Album, could she reinvent the industry a second time? Maybe not, but she certainly made a fizz with Lemonade. Pre-release marketing was minimal to say the least, a single video clip posted to Instagram announcing that something would happen on American subscription channel HBO at 9pm on Saturday 23rd April, but not specifying what. What happened was Lemonade, a second visual album, a work both more personal and political than anything the singer had previously essayed. The album premiered in full-on HBO before becoming yet another Tidal exclusive, though Knowles made at least one concession to Apple by making the album available for purchase through the iTunes store. Beyoncé rarely gives interviews, preferring her work to speak eloquently for itself, but she is a skilled manipulator of social media and knows exactly what it takes to get the internet all hot and bothered. On this occasion it was allowing the world to think that tracks like ‘Sorry’, with their themes of infidelity and betrayal, lifted the lid on what might have led to Beyoncé’s sister Solange attacking Jay Z in an elevator. The internet went wild hunting for ‘Becky with the

17 good hair’. Was she real? Beyoncé wasn’t saying. But once again, we were listening. Or we would be if we were willing to sign up to Tidal. So there you are, already a Spotify user (the Swedish giant has the largest number of paid subscribers, but also, controversially continues to have a free, advertising-led tier) and now, thanks to Rihanna, Kanye and Beyoncé, you’re also a subscriber to Tidal (you can get an initial three months free, but if you want to keep listening they’ll need those all-important credit card numbers). Here comes Drake to complicate matters a little more. When Apple launched the iTunes store in 2003 it was hailed as the saviour of the industry, a belated response to the havoc wrought since the dawn of Napster and illegal downloading. But as audiences turned away from downloads to streams, they needed to rethink their business model. In 2015, Apple announced its own streaming service, the launch of which coincided with a very public spat with Taylor Swift who objected to what she saw as the meagre royalties being paid to artists. The parties were eventually reconciled; Swift’s 1989, for example, can now be streamed on Apple Music, and in 2016 Swift recorded a highly entertaining advert for the service in which she’s sent tumbling from a treadmill as she listens to Drake. Talking of whom... Windowing Drake’s Views Drake’s fourth album proper, Views, was released as an Apple exclusive in April, and it wasn’t long before the album’s lead single, One Dance, took up residence at the top of the UK charts, consolidating a year of dominance for the Canadian artist. Views was the first of a number of releases that ‘windowed’ with Apple Music, a two-week period of exclusivity before they are made available to rival services. Another notable example was Colouring Book, the second release from young Chicago artist, Chance the Rapper, who isn’t signed to a record label and has never released music that can be purchased. His is a new model of being an artist, where sponsorships, merchandise, collaborations with other artists, and live performance take the place of album sales. Ocean Waves Which almost brings us to the end of the year, and to the spectral figure who kept refusing to show up to this feast of stream-age kicks: Frank Ocean. Silent since 2012, a mysterious video stream crackled into life on his website in August 2016, seemingly showing the artist himself hard at work on some DIY projects with snatches of music occasionally bubbling to the surface. This, it turns out, is how you market one of the most eagerly anticipated albums in years. The live stream gave way to Endless, a visual album available exclusively through Apple. Two days later, it was followed by Blond, a non-visual album this time, though its first track ‘Nikes’ was released with accompanying video 24 hours in advance. So where next? If 2016 was about rap and RnB, then 2017 promises to be all about pop. All eyes will be on Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift, not to mention Ed Sheeran and Harry Styles, all expected to return with new albums. Who gets the exclusives? Will, as many from the MM vaults expect, Apple purchase Tidal, making those rich shareholders even Spot(ify) the Difference: Swift, Bragg richer in the process? For all the answers, keep watching the clouds. and the Maths of Making Money in the Music Industry: MM53 Ian Bland teaches Media at Holy Cross College. Spotify A2 Case Study: MM56

18 he history of the media is a of censorship was Areopagitica, John Steph Hendry history of social and cultural Milton’s 1644 pamphlet on freedom of considers the power change. Developments speech – an issue that is still relevant of the media. in mass communication today and draws in debates about the technologiesT have been instrumental freedom of the press and the right in bringing about social changes. to free expression on social media. Often change is resisted, and the media has frequently been associated Film with some sort of social decline and The power of film images has been has been the focus of many moral argued to have the potential to shape L’ Arrivée d’un Train panics. Here are some examples of attitudes and values. Filmmakers like à La Ciotat (Lumière technological developments and the Brothers, 1897 ) the German Leni Riefenstahl used the social changes they were part of. form to create powerful and effective propaganda images for the Nazi regime The Printing Press and demonstrated the potential of film The printing press (invented in 1440) in communicating political ideologies. made possible the mass reproduction Early Hollywood antagonised some of and distribution of the written word the religious and political leaders of and images, enabling information the day due to its ‘lack of morality’. It and ideas to be widely circulated, was feared that the sex and violence and facilitating the rise of literacy. depicted in films would ‘debauch the One of the first concerns raised about nation’. The 1930 Hays Motion Picture the printing press was how quickly Production Code set rules to ensure and easily it could pass on ideas that film representations were morally challenged the dominant values of the acceptable, and the film industry time. An early engagement on the issue adopted the code, censoring its own output for over 30 years until it was abandoned in the late 1960s. Film is no longer seen as being as powerful as it once was but ‘Hollywood values’ have been communicated all over the world for over 100 years and it is argued that this example of ‘cultural imperialism’ has helped the development of ‘Americanisation’ across the world.

19 Radio Video Players Radio bought mass communication The introduction of domestic into everyone’s home. The technology video players led to two major was relatively cheap and easy to use. changes in audience behaviour: Radio meant that information and • audiences could choose to messages could be communicated record TV broadcasts and watch directly to national audiences, and programmes when they chose was used extensively by governments. • audiences could rent (and Radio is often seen as a unifying force later buy) films, and so had as it helped to construct the idea of a access to a wide range of film consensus audience where everyone releases outside the cinema. accessed the same programming Video, and later DVD began the at the same time. This in turn led to process of allowing audiences more a shared culture, bringing people choice in terms of what they watched, together in shared experiences. leading to a more fragmented audience rather than the consensus one Pop Music associated with television viewing. 20th-century pop music owes its existence to two communication Electronic Gaming technologies – radio and the vinyl The world of electronic gaming disk. The disk allowed music to be has transformed the way many recorded and then distributed to be people spend their money and their played at home; the radio played the free time. Gaming offers audiences disk, allowing audiences to select and countless options in terms of buy the music they enjoyed. Media genres and styles of play and is companies soon saw the potential a massively important industry, profit in creating and selling music making over $90 billion in 2015. to young people in the 1950s; they Critics of gaming are concerned that have attempted to engage and the content of some games, particularly attract new audiences to new music those based on violence, and the act ever since. The impact of pop music of gaming itself may be creating social was social as well as economic as it became synonymous with youth identity, becoming the focus for tribes including the mods, rockers and hippies of the 1960s, through 70s punks and 90s new-age hippies and ravers. These youth tribes defined themselves as groups that resisted mainstream culture and its values. change. The mainstream media often Television assume that gamers are adolescent males who play at the expense of Like radio, TV bought messages interacting with friends and family. It directly into the public’s home, is frequently assumed that excessive and became the centre of popular game-playing is addictive, and hampers culture as it offered information and the development of social skills. entertainment. Through the 60s, 70s and into the 80s there were only three UK channels. Channel 4 was The Internet/Social Media launched in 1982 and Channel 5 in The internet and social media are 1997. TV audiences were massive, and currently transforming the way people most people watched mainstream communicate, gather information, popular television which created socialise, access entertainment and a shared cultural knowledge and organise their lives. There has never experience; water-cooler moments been so much information available and platforms for national debate. so readily, and its impact is likely to be as big as that created by the

20 printing press. Old industries (such undoubtedly been influential in the as print newspapers) are struggling way UK culture has developed since the to survive while new technologies late 20th century, with tabloidisation such as augmented and virtual reality, redefining approaches to news and robotics and artificial intelligence entertainment. Murdoch has also had are already in development. close relationships with members of From cyber-bullying to trolling, the British government, including easy access to pornography, cat- Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, George fishing, radicalisation, and the risk Osborne and David Cameron; within of grooming, the internet and social weeks of her election as PM, Teresa May media have generated many modern also managed to squeeze in a meeting moral panics about potential social with him on a 36-hour trip to New York. change. While some of these dangers In a capitalist society, wealth brings may be exaggerated, we do know that power, and owning media institutions terrorist groups recruit online and use creates both wealth and influence. the Internet to communicate their Billionaire media magnates own propaganda, and that bullying and most of the main UK newspapers, vicious trolling do exist. It is almost so it should be no surprise that their inevitable that these technologies will titles repeatedly promote agendas create major societal and economic that benefit corporate interests changes – it’s just not clear what – not as some sort of convoluted direction these changes will take. conspiracy theory, but in order to maintain a position of power that Political and Economic they will benefit from. Having the Power ear of politicians and being able to mediate news and events gives The media serves the interests news institutions enormous power. of state and corporate power. It’s often argued that modern Chomsky audiences are more powerful than ever before, as they are able to take Another way to look at the idea charge of their media experiences, of power in the media is to consider choose where and when to access the relationship of the media to the entertainment and information, political and economic status quo. and to become media producers From this perspective, the media are an themselves. This power is being arm of the state reinforcing the existing enabled by digital technologies; power structures of government, but it’s important to remember that religion, economics and class. Marxists the ideological power to shape the argue that the media perpetuate the news agenda and influence the belief that the existing power structures political context is still in the hands are both ‘natural’ and unchangeable. of traditional media institutions. For example, take the power of Rupert Murdoch. He is currently the from the MM vaults head of News Corp. which owns Steph Hendry is a Media lecturer at Media Platforms: The Impact Runshaw College and a freelance writer. (amongst over 800 other companies of Technology: MM29 Follow her on Twitter @albionmill and organisations) the Sun, the Times, Newspaper History: MM23 Sky One, Sky News (including Sky News Radio) and Sky Sports. His companies What Has the Internet Ever own US and Australian media as well Done For Me? MM55 as magazine and book publishers (including National Geographic), news and advertising agencies and printing and haulage companies. Murdoch and his ‘properties’ have

21 Any self-respecting film student knows that informed and critical online research is essential – but where do you start? Roy Stafford introduces some of the most useful film websites around.

ver the last twenty If your research is looking ‘monetise’ information that more sceptical film fans since years both the film at films from the UK, North they believe is useful to it was bought by Hollywood industry and film America, South Korea, industry professionals on interests – it is now owned scholarship have Australia, France or various a separate IMDb Pro site. 70% by Comcast Universal developed ways of using other European countries The database also helps to and 30% by Warner Bros. internet resources for their there is a great deal of reliable promote Amazon’s other work. Wider audiences too data on films, much of which commercial operations and Wikipedia Film Pages have grown used to drawing is published free by state is linked to another Amazon (separate pages for on the internet for agencies in English – the company Box Office Mojo. individual film titles) information about films and language of the international IMDb’s data is film screenings. Physically film business. In some of the comprehensive for North Wikipedia is still regarded going to a cinema is still the other big film markets – China American and UK output but suspiciously by film scholars best way to initially engage and India in particular – data is it isn’t infallible and unless and any Wikipedia page with film culture, but using much less reliable or available. a foreign language film has should be treated with the internet can make it a The most sensitive had a US release the range caution. But as a first port much richer experience. information about films deals of material may be limited. of call Wikipedia offers the There is plenty to discover with the production budget IMDb is most useful in making easiest way to access a about most films but you and you may have to accept connections and building lists range of material on a film, need to know where to an estimate or make an of directors, actors, producers, including links to some of the look – and what credence ‘educated guess’ – sometimes production companies etc. journalistic commentary about you can give to what you you can find statements by Its ‘user comments and the film, and to other sources. find. Unfortunately you may directors or producers in press ratings’ are skewed towards find that your school or interviews. A real problem is North America and its The British Film college blocks some websites the growing use of pay walls ‘external reviews’ seem to on reasonable grounds Institute (bfi.org.uk) which require prohibitive be thinner than they were of protection for younger subscriptions in order to a few years ago – i.e. not The BFI provides a host students. In this article it is access data. All of the sources listing the most well-known of free data and resources assumed that you can get listed here offer at least some reviewers and publications. essential for all film and media access to all the sites listed. free data, and the list below studies students. It is a very starts with some well-known Rotten Tomatoes big website in four sections. sites before moving on to (rottentomatoes.com) You can find out about more specialised resources. the British film industry in This is a ‘film review ‘Education and Research’ (The Internet Movie aggregator’ that offers links Weekly Box Office figures are to reviews of specific film particularly useful) and also Database (IMDb.com) titles, awarding an overall ‘Supporting UK Film’. ‘Explore This first appeared online percentage score to each Film and TV’ includes online as a web resource hosted by film. There are UK and other extracts from Sight and Sound, Cardiff University but was national versions alongside the one of the most important bought from its founder Col US original. Some audiences film journals in the English- Needham by Amazon in 1998. prefer it to IMDb as a guide to speaking world. A separate As the database has grown, which films to watch. The site BFI initiative is Screenonline Amazon has attempted to has lost some credibility with (www.screenonline.org.uk)

22 – an online encyclopaedia will Brexit affect the UK look for them on each film’s in the UK, Launching Films of British film. Your school film industry?’ and ‘Gender page whether they are ‘in (launchingfilms.com) from the or college should be able to inequality in the UK film cinemas’ or ‘on DVD/VOD’. The Film Distributors Association register to allow access to industry’ as well as ‘How much Canadian distributor Mongrel is a must. The website of archive film clips on this site. do Hollywood campaigns Media (mongrelmedia.com) the BBFC (British Board of for an Oscar cost?’ These are has an Index of over 1,000 Film Classification – bbfc. Audio-Visual generally very accessible. films, many with Press Packs. co.uk) is similarly essential, Observatory Reports/reviews from confirming a film has been Researching an festivals such as Cannes, classified in the UK and This is a European site Toronto, Berlin and Venice are offering Case Studies of offering the Lumiere Individual Film Title posted online by the US trade difficult classifications. database of ‘films released If you want to know more papers Variety (variety.com) in Europe’ (lumiere.obs.coe. about a specific film And the Rest... int/web/search/). It gives than you can learn the admissions figures for from newspaper What about YouTube, each European country reviews or Vimeo and the hundreds and sometimes for North ‘consumer’ websites, of other sites with film clips, American markets. (Not full you can follow the interviews and reviews? They data before 1997.) Multiply links on Wikipedia are all useful. The main point the admissions figure by 6 to or IMDb (look in is to focus on what you want get a rough box office figure ‘Official Sites’). Your to research and to search in US$ or Euros. Look for ‘Ken searches are likely for it in a systematic way. It’s easy to get distracted and Loach’ as a director and see to go in different start watching a movie. Fine where his films get the biggest directions if the film if you’ve got the time, but not audiences – it isn’t in the UK! in question is a ‘studio picture’ and The Hollywood Reporter good if you have an essay to (a mainstream film distributed (hollywoodreporter.com). Like write or a presentation to give. Screendaily (www. by a Hollywood studio) or a Screendaily, the trades offer Teachers and examiners will screendaily.com) ‘specialised’/’independent’ reviews that compared to want to see references for the film. Studios use the internet The website of Screen consumer-orientated reviews range of sources you’ve used, to sell the film direct to International (the UK-based are usually more informative so make sure you list some audiences via an official film trade publication for the about production issues of the industry organisations website, whereas specialised ‘international film market’ and more ‘objective’ in the above. Many of them have films are discussed online – the European equivalent sense that they try to suggest their own YouTube channels. first in order to be sold to of Variety or The Hollywood whether a film will work with For instance, Creative England distributors and exhibitors. Reporter) offers news, reviews particular audiences. A slightly (creativeengland.co.uk) Coverage of the latter often and feature articles from different approach with more the public agency which depends on film festival an industry perspective. interviews can be found on supports ‘creative talents’ reports and on the Press Some material is hidden Indiewire (indiewire.com), in the film industry has a Packs produced for festivals behind a subscriber wall, dealing with independent/ YouTube channel that carries and film markets. These Press but it’s worth a punt. specialised films. On these an informative and enjoyable Packs are sometimes then sites you may have to wait short film about why Star posted online by distributors. Stephen Follows for an ad to clear but usually Wars: The Force Awakens was You can find these simply by (stephenfollows.com) access is free. Don’t get shot in the UK. Check it out! searching for the film title sucked into the tabloid junk Stephen Follows is a with year, director and ‘Press listed under ‘Sponsored Roy Stafford blogs at researcher for the film industry Pack’ or ‘Press Notes’. In the Content’ on Variety’s site. as well as producer/writer/ UK distributors like Artificial itpworld.wordpress.com and teacher. He produces frequent Eye (curzonartificialeye.com/ Other Film Culture globalfilmstudies.com reports ‘number-crunching’ films) and New Wave Films Topics data about interesting topics (newwavefilms.co.uk) offer such as ‘Studying race in hi-res images, interviews, Press If you want to understand the UK film industry’, ‘How Notes etc. – but you have to how film distribution works

23 24 E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

Henry Thomas & Moon E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) AF archive / Alamy Stock Photo Henry Thomas & Moon E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) AF archive / Alamy Stock Photo / Alamy Stock (1982) AF archive Extra-Terrestrial The & Moon E.T. Thomas Henry

You may not know his name, but you’ll recognise his tunes as soon as you hear them. John Williams is a living legend, with over 50 Oscar nominations, and a slate that includes most of the highest- grossing films of all time. Will Rimmer selects five of his most memorable moments. Photo: Chris Devers, Creative Commons Creative Chris Devers, Photo:

25 Jaws (1975) Jaws (1975). Alamy Stock Photo (1975). Alamy Stock Jaws

n a career spanning an unbelievable Remarkably, in June 2016 John Williams became seven decades, Hollywood film composer the first film composer to receive the American John Williams has defined not just how Film Institute (AFI) lifetime achievement award. The film scores are delivered and heard by heavyweights of Hollywood were in attendance to cinema audiences, but also re-written the acknowledge his genius, including his most famous rules on how blockbuster ‘popcorn’ films from collaborator of all, Steven Spielberg. As the AFI was the early 1970’s onwards possessed a depth quick to acknowledge, there was cinema before of aural qualities considered gone since the John Williams, and cinema after John Williams! days of the golden age of cinema. Williams Aged 84, he shows no signs of slowing down, a returned classical scores to the mainstream testament to his longevity and incredible work ethic. and became the composer of his generation. Though some audiences may not know his name, they will certainly know his outstanding body of work, which spans from disaster films of the early 70s (The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno) to the re-birth of the science fiction and superhero Somehow he genres in the late 70s (Star Wars, Superman) and has composed then through the 1980s Indiana Jones adventure serials, 1990s Jurassic Park films, and 2000s Harry the music of Potter series. Clearly, there are too many films to our lives. discuss from a man with over 50 Academy Award Sir Howard Stringer, chair nominations – second only to Walt Disney – and of the AFI board of trustees five wins to date. Outside film, he also worked for several years with the Boston Pops orchestra, His music is and composed memorable themes for the 1984 Los Angeles and 1996 Atlanta Olympic games. the magic dust However, it is for his film work that Williams is of movies. rightly considered a living legend. Is he a modern day Beethoven or Mozart? Certainly, he is as close Star Wars and Indiana to this comparison as anyone working in film Jones collaborator George could be. In his tribute to Williams, Spielberg said: Lucas ‘He has given movies a musical language that can be understood in every country on the planet.’ How do we decide which of Williams’ film scores are the best? Which cinematic images

26 Star Wars (1977) Star Wars. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Wars. Star

are the ones that stand above all others in music offered a glimmer of hope, with its grand, large part because of his music? Here are a operatic score helping to whisk audiences to a handful of film images in which his music galaxy far, far away. Though bombastic music served to enhance their beauty and impact. in the action scenes rightly drew praise, it was Williams’ music in the film’s more sombre, intimate a) Jaws, 1975 (Two-note motif – Chrissie Watkins moments, which truly stood out. None better than shark attack scene) when Luke Skywalker gazes out to the stars on The now iconic two-note ‘da dum’ two-note his empty, desolate home planet of Tatooine. motif in Jaws, signifying an imminent shark attack, The classic ‘force’ theme is given a light touch, emerged from long suspenseful notes in the to illustrate both Luke’s sense of isolation, and his attack on the film’s first victim, Chrissie Watkins. A frustration at exclusion from the battles taking chromatic, subversive pitch on the strings section place in space. Luke had acerbically noted that: ‘If further builds tension as the monster from the deep there’s a bright star in the centre of this universe, slowly begins to circle, stalk and then attack the then I am as far away from it as possible.’ young girl. The primal fear the audience submit to During, the sunset images, Williams used a string during Chrissie’s death is accentuated through harp quartet, plus brass, strings and a solo trumpet to and piano. It mirrors the sense of a heartbeat, as the reinforce Luke’s feelings of planetary ‘imprisonment.’ low rumble of the two-note motif rises into a high- The evocative tone ultimately set is one of pitched frenzy on the string instrument. Certainly, sadness, and remains one of the best examples a Psycho-style high-pitched method operates in of understated music in Williams’ entire oeuvre. the attack scene; Bernard Hermann, Hitchcock’s

greatest composer, served as a key influence on 3) Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977 the musical style and cinematic mood Williams (Five-note motif closing sequence – see p.28) would create so effectively in Jaws’ opening scene. For the film’s final sequence, when contact is 2) Star Wars, 1977 (Luke Skywalker and the twin finally made between Earth and the mothership, setting suns on Tatooine) it was fitting that music was used as the conduit In Star Wars, Williams worked with the London through which the aliens communicate. The Symphony Orchestra to create an old-fashioned now iconic five-note motif worked through classical score which many observers felt would not the use of a synthesiser, and tuba from the fit the SF genre. However, Williams’ score not only brass family of instruments. A French horn matched director George Lucas’ expectations, but emanating from the mother ship increased exceeded them. While the special effects-heavy the volume to such an extent that glass space opera suffered massively with numerous broke in the background, causing Spielberg’s technical problems during its production, the Everyman hero Roy Neary to jump with fright.

27 Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Kind (1977). Third The Of Close Encounters Photo Alamy Stock

The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Back (1980) Stikes Empire The Photo Stock 12 / Alamy © Photos

That five-note motif became the ultimate their own, as the Jaws two-note motif can be sound of Close Encounters. Such was its seminal heard also. Playful in nature, it was an obvious impact on pop culture that many future films nod not just to that film, but perhaps more and television shows would riff its beat. For pertinently, to the complex relationship between example, 18 months later, the James Bond composer/filmmaker, text and audience. film Moonraker (1979) saw Bond punch the 4) The Empire Strikes Back, 1980- (Darth Vader 5-note motif into a touchpad to break into first appearance/The Imperial march – see left) a secret location. Spielberg and Williams If the force theme belongs solely to Luke themselves even used the alien meeting scene Skywalker, then the Imperial March theme, first to insert a cheeky intertextual reference of

28 heard in Empire, belongs to Darth Vader. An imposing, dissonant tonality evokes the feeling of dread when Vader makes his first appearance, on the bridge of a vast, galactic space cruiser. The opening riff sets the ball in motion, and the sense of rhythm throughout is clear, set to a marching 4-beat time. The evil force of Darth Vader is implied by pitched instruments such as strings, horns and timpani at the bottom of their range. The darkness of the sounds parallel the darkness of the man in black himself. Overall, harmony, melody and rhythmic timing work in unison to generate a sense of doom via Darth Vader, just as effectively as the great white shark in Jaws. 5) E.T., 1982 (Bike in the sky/moon backdrop for E.T.’s theme) A binary opposite to the fear and darkness of the Imperial March, the theme used for the bicycle chase scene towards the end of E.T. is one Henry Thomas & Moon E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Extra-Terrestrial The & Moon E.T. Thomas Henry Photo / Alamy Stock AF archive of hope and light. The Spielberg signature image (used as the logo for his production company Amblin) of Elliot’s bike rising into the air against the backdrop of a full moon, is powerful, but only truly comes alive thanks to the genius of Williams music. Not long after the release of E.T. in June 1982, which went on to smash box office records, Spielberg succinctly summed up the power of the theme, admitting: ‘While it was Industrial Light and Magic that put those bikes in the sky, it was John’s music that made them fly.’ The leitmotif theme can be heard throughout the entire film, sometimes subtle and at other times foregrounded, but never to the point of overpowering the images on screen; but in the ‘He has given movies a bicycle chase scene its full effect is inescapable. The symbiotic relationship between director and musical language that can composer, image and note, film and audience, be understood in every all coalesce in a single frame to reduce even the most cynical to tears. Williams’ music doesn’t so country on the planet.’ much grab on the heartstrings, as yank them back with the force of a hurricane. Alongside the haunting violin music of Schindler’s List (1993) – omitted from this list because it is less References easy to link to a particular scene– the E.T. theme www.afi.org possibly remains Williams most celebrated www.deadline.com piece of music. The problem is, there are just Baxter, J. 1996. Steven Spielberg: so many to choose from. For film music lovers The Unauthorised Biography the world over, what a lovely problem that is... Baxter, J. 2000. George Lucas: A Biography Will Rimmer teaches Film and Media Studies at Knowsley Community College. from the MM vaults The Modern Media Composer – the Pains and Pleasures of Making a Career in Music for the Movies: MM8 Music in Horror: MM31

29 In the light of new examination requirements, the ‘film canon’ is being dusted down to fire up a new generation of A Level Film students (see the new subject specification from WJEC and OCR). But what is a ‘canon’? Mark Ramey investigates – and finds the answer in the montage editing of Soviet theorist Eisenstein. Odessa Steps still from Battleship Battleship still from Odessa Steps Photo © Alamy Stock Potemkin.

ccording to the Online Oxford Dictionary, a canon is (amongst other things) ‘a list of works considered to be permanently established as being of the highest quality’. This simplistic definition, however, masks some complicated ideas, as noted by director Paul Schrader: ‘Not only is there no agreement about what a canon should include, there’s no agreement about whether there should be canons at all. Or, if there is agreement, it is this: canons are bad – elitist, sexist, racist, outmoded, and politically incorrect.’ He’s talking about lists of old dead white guys! The new Film Studies A Levels (scheduled for teaching from September 2017), then, are swimming against the tide – but not against the abundant compilers of ‘Best of…’ lists that litter film magazines, newspapers and web sites. Coffee-table books such as 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (UK, 2010) are good populist examples of such canonical thinking; but even an academic film magazine such as Sight and Sound conducts a poll of filmmakers and critics every 10 years in order to find their ‘Best’ films. When the last poll was taken, in 2012, the BFI Online List described the 11th film in their list,

30 Odessa Steps still Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein, 1925, USSR) as: rather pioneering examples of film theory in from Battleship ‘A fixture in the critical canon almost since its practice. One such theory, montage, helped Potemkin premiere.’ In the same poll, No. 8 was Man with a refine cinematic grammar. Indeed without Movie Camera (Vertov, 1928, USSR); this film was the early experiments in film montage, we subsequently voted the Best Documentary of all would have no Hitchcock or Nouvelle Vague, time in a 2014 Sight and Sound genre-specific poll. let alone modern TV adverts or music videos. So, canons aside, what is it about Soviet ‘Montage’ derives from the French and cinema of the silent era that strikes such a chord refers to the construction of a whole text nearly 90 years after these films were released? through the juxtaposition of different elements and fragments. In film it is the technique The Power of Revolution of sequencing different shots to form a continuous whole. Key theorist and practitioner The answer is simple: revolution. Early Soviet of montage, Sergei Eisenstein, sees this films had a radical message and a radical style. assembly of shots as ‘the nerve of cinema’. With the Czar and the capitalists vanquished, Soviet films were bankrolled by the The Birth of Montage: Kuleshov and new revolutionary government to These films spread the communist message Eisenstein are not just to a largely illiterate population. Eisenstein was impressed by a colleague, Lenin was a huge fan. But so too Lev Kuleshov, who taught at the world’s first propaganda were artists, drawn to the potency film school in Moscow. Kuleshov’s workshops exercises but of the relatively new medium of focused on the ‘grammar’ of film and famously, film and the artistic opportunities it at a time when celluloid was scarce, spent many rather pioneering afforded when given the thumbs- hours endlessly reassembling shots from D.W. examples of film up by a sympathetic government. Griffith’s Intolerance (1919), a film which Lenin These films are not just adored and which took Russian audiences and theory in practice. propaganda exercises but film makers by storm. Griffith is seen as the

31 master of a Hollywood style of editing called Fig 1 ‘Continuity’ (eye-line matches, cutting on action, etc.) and certainly the new Russian theorists of film such as Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov were fascinated by his use of parallel editing. Kuleshov’s students were also inspired by his very own experiment which revealed the now famous Kuleshov Effect. This experiment seemed to prove that it is the editing – the of montage, moving from the simplistic to juxtaposition of shots – rather than the reality the more complex, and building they are witnessing which changes the emotional on each other. They are: [Montage] is response of the audience. The experiment uses 1. Metric Montage – the literal three identical close-ups of an impassive human measuring of film stock and units a collision or face which bookends shots of firstly, a bowl of of time to create a sequence an attraction soup, then a corpse, and finally an attractive much like a piece of music. young woman. After each sequence of three 2. Rhythmic Montage – the tempo of of opposites: shots the audience interprets the face in close- the edit remains important but so too each frame up differently – seeing hunger, grief and lust in does the content of the shot, which each instance, whereas in fact none of emotions now may have its own rhythm and collides with its are present. Kuleshov’s conclusion is that the will perhaps work against the tempo. predecessor edit has moved us, not the actor (see figs 1-3). 3. Tonal Montage – this is again a Experiments like this, combined with a Marxist combination of the above but now on screen to belief in the process of revolutionary change with ‘tonal qualities’ admitted to the provide a newly called the ‘dialectic’, inspired Eisenstein to see shot such as lighting, shade, texture editing frames of filmed imagery, Montage, as a in the mise-en-scène and shapes. synthesized collision or an attraction of opposites: each frame When combined with metric and meaning. collides with its predecessor on screen to provide rhythmic montage these may lead a newly synthesised meaning. In Marxist theory, to new feelings in the audience. the economic struggle between the proletarian 4. Over-tonal Montage – this montage workers and the middle class bourgeoisie would effect looks at the sequence as a whole and produce a new communist society; Eisenstein contrasts it with subsequent sequences. saw film as a means of dramatising this dialectical 5. Intellectual Montage – here the above process through the clash and synthesis of are also linked with generating ideas rather images. And at its heart was the edited montage. than emotions through symbolism. Eisenstein took this idea further, in an essay written in 1929 but eventually collected in his book Film Form (1949). He posited five types

32 Fig 3

Potemkin and The Odessa Steps The sequence also contains all of Eisenstein’s five approaches to montage. For example Eisenstein’s three great silent film classics are in terms of Rhythmic Montage he himself Strike (1925), Battleship Potemkin (1925) and notes in his essays: ‘[...] the rhythmic drum of October (1927). All three films demonstrate the soldiers’ feet as they descend the steps his complex ideas of montage, but Battleship violates all metrical demands. Unsynchronised Potemkin remains (as we saw above) a with the beat of the cutting, this drumming favourite text in the canon, and is almost comes in off-beat each time…’ certainly a text a new visitor to the canon Eisenstein isn’t easy; but his theory of editing must see. That said, one scene in the film has is a fascinating counterpoint to the already- become renowned (rather like the shower established method of continuity editing murder in Psycho), as a synecdoche for the pioneered by D. W Griffith and Hollywood. entire film: the Odessa Steps sequence. With his peers, like Vertov, Eisenstein reminds The film is about a Russian battleship in port us that film can be theorised and need not be in Odessa on the Black Sea, and commemorates made for the lowest common denominator the failed revolution of 1905. The crew or for the biggest buck. They remind us that rebel against their officers because Key theorist and film can not only be deeply philosophical and of their appalling conditions, such political, but it can also be made for a higher practitioner of as being fed rotten meat. The local social purpose than status or personal wealth people show their support for the montage, Sergei (see MM53 on Russian punk band Pussy Riot sailors by gathering on the steep steps and MM41 on the commodification of Punk). Eisenstein, sees in central Odessa that overlook the So if we’re going to accept the importance of port. The authorities move against this assembly ‘the canon’ as a given, then Eisenstein’s Odessa the people and a company of armed, Steps sequence from Battleship Potemkin of shots as ‘the faceless soldiers march down the must surely be in the top ten of ‘The 1001 film steps, massacring helpless women nerve of cinema’. scenes you must watch on You Tube before you and children. Cossack horsemen with Die’. It is certainly in mine. What’s in yours? sabres cut down stragglers at the foot of the steps. Enraged by this cruelty, the sailors turn their ship’s guns onto the citadel of Odessa Mark Ramey teaches Film and Media Studies at and destroy it. The sequence concludes with a Collyer’s College, Horsham, East Sussex. great example of intellectual montage as a stone lion (actually three separately filmed lions in time and space) seemingly rears up, thus symbolising References the people rising up against their oppressors. See the Kuleshov effect here: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=_gGl3LJ7vHc Fig 2

from the MM vaults Vertov and Man with a Movie Camera: MM48

33 Gogglebox/Gogglesprogs Studio Lambert/ Studio Gogglebox/Gogglesprogs Channel 4

that portrayed kitchen sink drama with In two linked articles, Emma Calway explores the enduring nitty-gritty realism, albeit it in a safe popularity of Gogglebox with its audiences, while Matt environment. We can check our own Kaufman considers what Gogglebox and Gogglesprogs can thoughts, fears and hopes against a teach us about the slippery concept of postmodernism. safe paradigm, where we can judge others but don’t get judged ourselves. In this respect, we hold the power. ogglebox features a concept This safety net is structured around that could only have been a familiar recurring cast who we get realised in the 21st century, a to know over time; families, couples cross between an Orwellian and friends from all over the UK watch nightmareG and a real version of The British TV that spans all genres. We can Royle Family (the late Caroline Aherne, watch them watching it, comfortable screenwriter and actress from the in the fact that what we see won’t be sitcom, first provided the tongue-in- gruesome or shocking. We are screened cheek narration for Gogglebox, followed from shocking content, aware of the by her co-star Craig Cash). This series cast’s reaction before we see the gets us watching other viewers on actual scene in question, providing us their own sofas in their own living with a protective prism but also with rooms, who watch the same TV that a useful way to get the lowdown on we will have watched that week. Is it, the week’s TV. We can choose what to then, mindless reality TV that we can watch and what to avoid, based on switch on when we want to switch the reactions of the Gogglebox cast. off, or is it a study of something more The show is also traditional in the way complex, something symptomatic it places the living room and the TV set of our isolated, modern culture? as the focal point for families, looking Gogglebox’s hit ratings (it’s currently back to a time when the moving image in its seventh series) hint at its unique really was consumed in this way. This character: it’s not part of the tired is of course, completely at odds with reality talent TV formula adhered to evidence of the younger generation’s by Strictly, X Factor, or The Voice, where viewing habits; many prefer to watch/ contestant is set against contestant, stream box sets on services like Netflix instead somehow managing to and view on devices such as tablets, create feelings of togetherness in a laptops and smart phones, or TV catch- disconnected, fragmented society. It up, rather than watching it live on has similarities with 1960s soap operas the box with the rest of the family.

34 Gogglebox/Gogglesprogs Studio Lambert/ Studio Gogglebox/Gogglesprogs Channel 4

In this way Gogglebox is nostalgic and to the previous week, and every now reinforces the theme of togetherness and then, a new family, couple or trio and family values. This can also of friends. There will be features we create much hilarity as we see how recognise from the previous week: different generations view the same Steph and Dom invariably quaff an event. We watch TV differently, not alcoholic beverage while the Moffats just in format but also because of have cups of tea and the Malones who we are watching it with. usually have an array of sweet treats. Airing on Channel 4 at 9pm, the However, can the cast’s reactions Bafta-winning show shows warts- really be completely authentic? After and-all reactions: tears, anger, all, like Big Brother, the cast know not swearing, shock and laughter only that they are being watched, but – it manages to span all aspects that they might be prime-time TV of the human spirit, elements gold. They may be particularly careful that unite us all. Farah Ramzan about what they say because they Golant, the boss of TV distribution are conscious of public perception; company, All3Media, commented alternatively, they may deliberately say in the Evening Standard that: shocking, outlandish things to ensure more screen time for themselves. After Everyone loves watching TV all, the posh Sandwich duo, Steph and and talking about TV. But the Dom Parker, have gone on to make show isn’t really about TV. The further programmes with Nigel Farage, show is about people’s lives, while another family was dropped their relationships, their living when the father tried to run as a UKIP rooms and the way children MP. Inevitably some participants may and parents talk about TV. crave the spotlight, and rather than an One of the major attractions of authentic study of human behaviour, Gogglebox is that its cast is accessible. the experiment thus becomes During transmission, you can tweet skewed. Tania Alexander, Executive the cast of the show. Newcastle’s Producer, stated in the Radio Times, Scarlett Moffat is a particularly I knew from the off that I didn’t active participant who frequently want to put people on television interacts with us, the viewers. who wanted to be on television. It’s a fascinating study of human behaviour – we like to see the houses of While this may have been true the cast, what’s changed in comparison at the outset, the cast are now

35 Gogglebox/Gogglesprogs Studio Lambert/ Studio Gogglebox/Gogglesprogs Channel 4

relatively famous, and several have a range of potential meanings and already exploited their notoriety that understanding a message can with appearances on talk shows and be problematic. The Gogglebox cast reality programmes. Scarlett Moffat, a consists of a mix of races, sexualities, particularly popular pundit, has now ages and genders and they react joined the 2016 series of I'm a Celebrity. differently on many major themes. To take just one example, an episode Agency and Effects in Series 7 focused on coverage of the Tata Steel crisis: the majority of Stuart Hall’s model of communication the cast was outraged by what was of the 1980s and 1990s challenged the happening, for a range of different view that the media have the power to reasons. The Michael family in Brighton, directly cause a certain behaviour in an for example, were worried about the individual (the so-called hypodermic hundreds of people who would lose needle model), while at the same their jobs. Steph and Dom, in contrast, time exploring the role of media as an concluded that the steel industry was agenda-setting function. Hall’s model finished – why are we still supporting put forward three central premises: this industry when foreigners can 1. the same event can be encoded do it cheaper, they argued? in more than one way; Gogglebox offers a snapshot (albeit 2. a message contains more than a contrived one) of modern, everyday one possible reading; and life. Watching, we see how certain 3. understanding a message can be events can bring the majority of people a problematic process, regardless together as one, regardless of religion, of how natural it may seem. gender, background, or race. Often, it Hall argued that the dominant seems, the most shocking events do ideology is typically inscribed as the this. They seem to make us recognise ‘preferred reading’ in a media text, but our shared values, while others allow that this is not automatically adopted us to celebrate our differences. There by readers. ‘Dominant’ readings are is nothing, it seems, more interesting produced by those whose social than the sociology of human situation favours the preferred reading. beings and this in part, explains the The differing social situations enduring popularity of Gogglebox. and experiences of readers/ viewers/listeners may lead them to adopt different stances. Emma Calway works as a content writer Gogglebox offers a fascinating insight for Ad Rank. into how Hall’s theory can work in practice. In watching the different reactions from different individuals and families to the same footage, we see that an event can indeed be encoded in more than one way, that it contains

36 Gogglebox/Gogglesprogs Studio Lambert/ Studio Gogglebox/Gogglesprogs Channel 4

Matt Kaufman offers a postmodern reading of Gogglebox and Gogglesprogs.

ostmodernism is an extensive What is Postmodernism? are no longer any strict rules to be and often challenging concept, adhered to, and everything is in a state which you will need to engage Many comparisons have been of flux. This is reflected in our art and with regardless of which exam made between the era of modernism our architecture, our communications specificationP you’re following. This (arguably from the mid-19th century and our media products. article will discuss a small number of to the mid-1950s) which reflected a key postmodern features in relation sense of the world through rational Recognising Some to case studies of Gogglebox and its approaches that included science and Postmodern Features: academia, reason and logic, and the junior incarnation, Gogglesprogs, which Confusion Over Space and aired in 2015. It follows the same newer thinking of the late 20th century, format as its parent show, except that broadly described as postmodernism. Time the participants are children aged A postmodern perspective argues that In our modern day world we have between 5-12. At the height of their previous approaches which drew on numerous examples of how time popularity both shows have pulled the rational certainties of modernism and space are compressed and can audience figures in excess of 4 million. are no longer viable in our media- become confusing and incoherent. saturated Western culture. Clear geographical distances and time Modernism Postmodernism Together with huge global scales have become jumbled and geo-political developments, Grand narrative of Scepticism of progress, undermined. Rapid flows of culture, progress achieved ambivalence towards the exponential rise of money and information lead to a though following science technology reactions, the media and digital feeling of distortion. We no longer hold and technology neo-Luddism; emerging communication means a firm grasp on the concepts of time new age religions that an abundance of and space because we can learn about Sense of unifi ed Feelings of disconnection voices now suggest any number of far removed cultures and centred self; and a decentred self; a range of alternative and lands at the touch of a button, can ‘individualism’, a unifi ed, multiple, fl uid and models which are more send emails and texts as well as Skype stable identity sometimes confl icting identities e.g. online relevant to modern day and Facetime people across the world, personalities life. Whereas in the past speaking to them instantly despite identifiable paradigms such what may be thousands of miles or Hierarchy, order, Subverted order, loss as Feminism, Marxism or hours of difference in time zones. centralised control of centralised control, fragmentation others allowed us to form a When watching Gogglesprogs coherent understanding of we note how time and space seem Easily recognisable Blending of conventions the world, such absolutes distorted. For starters the segments and identifi able styles, and genres, mixture of are now no longer viable. In of programming such as Britain’s conventions and genres styles a postmodern world there Got Talent or The Voice used within

37 Gogglebox/Gogglesprogs Studio Lambert/ Studio Gogglebox/Gogglesprogs Channel 4 the programme may have already something is copied and mimicked, Looking at Googlesprogs we see been watched by you beforehand, easily recognisable conventions are that whilst child participants may possibly weeks earlier. But now you are repeated but there is also a level of provide an added incentive for some watching it again, this time alongside analysis taking place, often through viewers, it means that the level of people watching it for the very first humour, which seeks to pick holes critical discussion is limited and time. These people are sat in their front in the original. Parody by definition we now also have further points to rooms but as we join them we could implies a critique which highlights consider: media consumption levels move between following participants any issues present. This is effectively amongst the young, passive and in parts of London or Manchester, illustrated in the short news report susceptible audiences and the missed over to those sat in homes in Wales segments performed by Jonathan opportunities by programmes such or Scotland, and then back again. Pie, who mimics news items but then as these that have not only failed to breaks with convention to make various challenge the culture of television Parody or Pastiche? satirical comments about biased news viewing among children, but instead coverage and political and social issues. have celebrated and glorified it. Another of the features of a How pastiche differs is that whilst postmodern society is to recognise that it may involve the use of conventions Where is the Reality? we now have an abundance of style from existing products and genres, over substance, meaning that there often with satirical intent, criticism Described in the Radio is far too much importance placed is secondary to entertainment and Times, Gogglesprogs is… on the surface of things – the way humour. This is why pastiche has The people-watching-TV- products look and present themselves been termed as ‘blank parody’. For watching-people-watching- – as opposed to an exploration of any example, how many music videos of TV show (which) returns for deeper meaning found within. We value boy bands have you seen set on a a seasonal special where the appearance and simplicity of things beach or in an urban location where children, not adults are the over any complex insights or depth. For the performers all sing into camera? All subjects on the sofa. example take any number of celebrities of these videos generically reference who are famous not so much for their each other, yet there is little political French cultural theorist Jean great talents or abilities, but more for comment. When Busted, Take That or Baudrillard argues that we now live simply being attractive or famous for 1-D recycle boy band conventions, in a heavily media-saturated world, being famous. Reality television, the they rarely draw attention to these where we find ourselves surrounded genre that Gogglebox and Gogglesprogs continually repeated formulae. by images and representations, belongs, is well known for producing Gogglebox uses many conventions which we actually use to help us form (C list) celebrities who actually have from reality television shows, including meaning and understanding. However little talent to back up their found cheap settings and locations, unknown because of this, we have lost the ability fame-for example Joey Essex. participants and ‘natural’ reactions to distinguish between what is real Fredrick Jameson, a political theorist, to events that unfold – but does and what is a simulation of reality. takes the idea of style over substance little to try and criticise or discuss Baudrillard makes use of the term and discusses it in terms of pastiche. any of the issues found within this simulacra to describe how there is a To understand what a pastiche is, it type of programme, such as issues of never-ending procession of symbols should be viewed as the opposite of a representation or the contemporary and representations all around us, parody. When something is parodied, acceptance of high levels of media which themselves have no origin and a number of things are happening: consumption within a family setting. are therefore just copies of copies, or

38 Gogglebox/Gogglesprogs Studio Lambert/ Studio Gogglebox/Gogglesprogs Channel 4

representations of representations. what is not: we sit in our front rooms Being surrounded by simulacra means watching other people sat in their front we live in a hyper-real: where the rooms enjoying someone on a talent lines that distinguish reality from the show or a bake-off programme which simulation of reality have begun to in itself is not a real experience because blur. In a postmodern world where it is being mediated. We watch their the majority of our experiences are responses to these programmes and filtered through the mass media, how then we respond to their responses. can we tell if what we are thinking In all of that process how much of and feeling is actually genuine? what is happening can actually be Let’s take the simulacrum of New described as a ‘real’ experience? If the York as an example. We have seen emotions we are feeling are based on countless onscreen representations the emotions of someone else, who of its giant skyscrapers, yellow cabs themselves are not experiencing a real and the instantly recognisable Statue event, how far removed are we from of Liberty. Being there in real time as any real meaning and understanding? a tourist, our first-hand experience Getting to grips with these (and of the reality may arguably become other) postmodern features should be blurred and distorted due to our the aim of all Media students so that expectations and the iconography of you can begin to apply them to your New York we have already experienced own found examples in the future countless times over through the (that is – if the future really exists?!). mass media. It is all very confusing. Applying this to Gogglebox or Matt Kaufman is a Multimedia and English Gogglesprogs we can easily see a Lecturer at Heart of Worcestershire blurring between what is real and College.

39 40 41 pixelstalk.net

roadcasting live to 16 enjoyment to being able to break down Football journalist million viewers on ITV and document my understanding of Leon Mann during the European the game. But looking back, that itch Football Championships was actually more about expressing describes his own was never really part of my career plan. opinion, analysing games and also route into sports But this summer, there I found myself, taking an interest in the personalities journalism, and the standing with a microphone speaking within a team – all the ingredients importance of a to the nation. It was the realisation of needed to be a good football journalist. diverse and inclusive an ambition I had, for the majority of But despite all of this, the thought sports media. my life, never thought possible. of actually being a sports journalist As a 13-year-old, growing up in covering football seemed as attainable the 90s, all I wanted to do was play as breaking into the Manchester football. I wasn’t remotely interested United first team. It was never going in computer games or sitting inside to happen. A dream not worth watching films like lots of my mates. considering. Why? Well, as far as I I just wanted to be outside, working could see, no one ‘like me’ got to on the latest tricks I had seen at do those jobs. To cut straight to the games, or perfecting my volley – left point: I didn’t believe black people got foot and right. But as I got a bit older opportunities to be sports journalists, I became more and more interested especially those who hadn’t played in making notes, observations and football or other sports professionally. writing match reports on the football It was a pretty bleak assessment – I had watched or been involved in. but one largely based on fact. I was always pretty good Across the written and broadcast academically, but didn’t really get a football media there wasn’t one black buzz from writing about anything other sports journalist back then. Not one. than football – and eventually lots of There were some pundits – like Garth other sports. At the time I equated this Crooks and Paul Elliott (who both had

42 would become a great friend. Shelley There is not one black sports Alexander, an editor of Football Focus editor in the written sports at BBC Sport, had seen me do an interview on television as the ‘Kick It mainstream media. There is Out’ spokesperson, and told me I had not one black sports presenter some good on-screen potential. At the time I didn’t really believe her, as across any of the Premier League working on television was something pixelstalk.net television rights-holders live I still felt was unattainable, but she kept encouraging me. She then told match coverage in the UK. me about an opportunity at BBC Sport – and I decided to take a gamble football careers at the highest level) and go for it... and got the job! – but not one journalist. It was an all- I took a relatively significant pay white and all-male industry from what cut to take up the entry level job at I could see. This stark picture pretty BBC Sport, and in my spare time I much killed off any stirring aspiration wrote for The Voice newspaper – this in one fell swoop. What chance did a made me visible in the industry and mixed race kid from Haringey have I loved writing for the paper. Within of making it into the industry? six months I had got a promotion, to It was only when I was 26 that this Assistant Producer, and was flying. changed. I had been working for 10 years later and I have established ‘Kick It Out’, football’s anti-racism myself as one of the leading football campaign, and began to see some reporters in the country, working with diversity in the football media. It both ITV Sport and BBC Sport, and with was still shockingly low – just two a healthy reputation as a filmmaker too, or three black faces – but enough including two documentaries for the

All images author's own All to offer me some encouragement BBC on athletics legend Usain Bolt. to consider giving it a go. But while my ambitions and I also had a guardian angel rock up aspirations changed along my journey, in my life, in the form of a woman who the desperate lack of diversity in

43 the sports media hasn’t. Some facts sports media and asked searching to consider: there is not one black questions of these figures. We have sports editor in the written sports managed to successfully lobby to mainstream media. There is not one get the lack of diversity in the sports black sports presenter across any of media taken more seriously. And our the Premier League television rights- challenge to the industry isn’t just holders live match coverage in the UK. about what we see in front of the I was the only black sports reporter camera or the journalists visible in for UK television at the Euros. our newspapers – we also want to And when you consider more than see greater diversity in leadership 30% of professional footballers are positions as editors, producers and black in the UK – and a considerable directors, as well as photographers, number of the England national team sub editors, camera operators, are also from African and Caribbean sound technicians, picture editors… backgrounds – this makes for a very Essentially, we want greater diversity, uncomfortable dynamic on a match more reflective of modern society, day. So shortly after joining the industry across every part of the sports media. I decided to do something about it. Our greatest success, as a group, The industry’s lack of visibility has been to hold a conference called and accessibility to young aspiring ‘The D Word’ two years ago. The D BAME sports journalists was an issue stands for Diversity. While it was led I wanted to address immediately. by our organisation, focusing on So I set up BCOMS (Black Collective black issues, it covered all areas of of Media in Sport). The idea was diversity. We then put a sports media simple – to bring the black sports guide together for the industry, and journalists out there together into a circulated it widely. The reality may group to facilitate networking and be that this only made a ripple in the provide a focal point for the next industry – but since then we have seen generation. Don’t get me wrong – the issue taken a lot more seriously. we don’t run a ‘black-only policy’, A second ‘D Word’ conference but it is an initiative that recognises took place in October. We intend to the huge under-representation of reflect on the progress made in two black people in the industry. years and look for further solutions BCOMS has held events with the to help aspiring diverse sports most senior decision-makers in the journalists from all backgrounds All images author's own All

44 A more diverse sports media is a better sports media.

and ethnicities find their way into as a result of what they have failed to the industry, and to flourish! see in the sports media. If you cannot References People often ask me why do we see yourself, or someone like you, To find out more about BCOMS need a more diverse sports media? in a position you dream of being in please go to www.bcoms.co and Maybe BAME people, women and one day, then that is likely to have an follow @bcomstweet on Twitter. those with disabilities, have interests impact. So when I was broadcasting to in other careers. My response is pretty 16 million viewers for ITV during the straightforward. A more diverse sports European Football Championships, I And talking of diversity... media is a better sports media. To have really hope it helped to inspire young What about the women? coverage, analysis and opinion from people of all backgrounds who may The sports media have a long one perspective limits how much we want to follow in my footsteps. way to go in terms of equality can explore topics and ways of telling of opportunity as far as female stories. Why would we not want to Leon is a regular presenter for a range journalists are concerned, as the be more diverse, and offer greater of sports programming including Match case of Jacqui Oatley shows. Read depth and breadth to our work? of the Day, and has made acclaimed more about this on the Guardian I always think back to my own documentaries on Usain Bolt and Jermain and the Telegraph websites: search experience when explaining the Defoe. He is founder of BCOMS, the ‘Jacqui Oatley Football Girls’. importance of the work BCOMS is Black Collective of Media in Sport, and a doing. If there is, or has been, a poverty passionate supporter of diversity in the of aspiration from BAME young sports media. people in this area, then it’s largely All images author's own All

45 Illustration for BeautyIllustration for and the Routledge George Beast. London: domain 1874. Public and Sons,

ack in the late Sinead McCausland 17th century, investigates the the French many different writer versions and Madame d’Aulnoy first media forms of a coined the classic fairy-tale. term ‘fairy- tale’ to describe the children’s stories we know today – tales of a perpetually sleeping princess, a girl who loses a slipper, or even a young woman who falls in love with her captor beast. Arguably, fairy- tale narratives directly mirror the range of stories children will come to face in life as they grow up, providing them with the metaphorical tools they will need when they inevitably encounter the villains in their very own real- life fairy-tales. However, over the centuries, the ways these fairy-tales are told have changed. Spoken stories metamorphosed into ink and parchment; ink and parchment was updated to paper in hardcover and paperback novels; words in novels have been transformed into images on widescreens; and giant widescreens have now shrunk to moving images we can hold in one hand. This development from oral retellings to images on a screen is particularly fascinating; the shift from word of mouth communication to thought in one’s own head, and, eventually, projection onto a screen, showcases

46 Josette Day / Beauty and the Beast / 1946 directed by Jean Cocteau ScreenProd / Photononstop / Alamy Stock Photo Cocteau, 1946 bydirected Jean andtheBeast, Beauty 47 the breadth and complexity of not Cocteau’s Iconography metaphor suggesting that the creative just fairy-tales, but also of humanity. abilities of an artist offers entry into Adapted from the French novelist One of Cocteau’s most famous the mystical world – the Other – the Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de pieces of iconography is the mirror, realm of magic and wonderment. Villeneuve’s tale, Jeanne-Marie Leprince which is fundamental to the characters In terms of the progression from de Beaumont’s retelling of Beauty and and narrative of both Orphée (his Beaumont’s original tale to Cocteau’s the Beast is the written adaptation inspirational surrealist film about the surreal visuals these are important that popularised the now classic myth of Orpheus in the Underworld) symbols, demonstrating Cocteau’s story. Beaumont’s tale omits a slightly and La Belle et la Bête. In both films, the ability to merge his own artistic world complex backstory in Villeneuve’s mirror transports the central characters with another artist’s, resulting once to and from magical worlds, creating original, opting for a simplified story again in a new version of ‘Beauty a physical boundary between what that fits the tropes and archetypes of and the Beast’ that has lived on to is real and what is enchanted. In La a typical fairy-tale. In the original, the inspire the most famous retelling Belle et la Bête, Belle uses the mirror Beast is painted as a victim of an evil to date: the 1991 Disney version. fairy’s curse, rather than a character once in the enchanted castle in order who has something to learn. In de to see an image of her father who is Disney’s Animated Beauty Beaumont’s retelling, the Beast’s curse sick back in the real world. In Orphée Directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirk is represented as a punishment for mirrors are used as devices to travel Wise, Disney’s 1991 Beauty and the not letting a fairy inside his castle through between life and Hades. In Beast is the film that introduces many from the rain. Interestingly, Disney both, however, the protagonists need children to the world of Beauty and decided to retain this backstory in to use gloves to transport between its own 1991 animation, directed by Gary Trousdale and Kirke Wise. Notably, it drew inspiration both from Beaumont’s written fairy-tale, but also from the first – and arguably most faithful – screen adaptation of Beauty and the Beast, Jean Cocteau’s La Belle et la Bête (1946), showing the complexity of thinking about fairy- tales, originality and source material. The Influence of Cocteau Jean Cocteau was a French poet, writer, director, artist and playwright who hung out with Édith Piaf, Pablo Picasso and Marlene Dietrich, making him a part of an ultra-cool 20th-century ‘squad’ not unlike Taylor Swift and co today. Cocteau came to prominence on the

early 20th-century French art scene domain 1913. Public Goble, Warwick Beauty and the Beast by when he was young, publishing his first poetry collection aged 19. This introduction to the world of art and artistic expression through poetry has affected his style of filmmaking: his these juxtaposing universes – a her captor; for some it may even be films, especially the most acclaimed, significant image, as Cocteau’s art often their first introduction to the world of such as Blood of a Poet and Orphée, deal explored the different meanings of fairy-tales. With clear juxtapositions with three perspectives of art – the hands. One picture shows the artist through bright colours and catchy life of an artist; life as an artist; and life with multiple hands protruding from songs contrasting Belle’s world with the with an artist. His style of filmmaking behind him, each engaging in an dark, ominous and isolated universe of is very much in the ‘cinema as poetry’ artistic act such as reading, writing the Beast, this version, unlike Cocteau’s, world, and his La Belle et la Bête is and smoking. In Blood of a Poet, the presents an obvious contrast between a perfect example. His adaptation artist experiments with the hands what is good and what is bad. In the demonstrates how film can elevate a and their relation to a fragmented film, audiences see Gaston and his fairy-tale into something that is in and body and mind. The covering of puppet LeFou as the clear villains, and of itself ethereal and beyond time. the hand with a glove is perhaps a the Beast as the ‘red herring’ villain,

48 who first metaphorically transforms preparation for the inevitable Disney empathises with the Beast), while Gans into the young knight in distress, and 2017 live-action Beauty and the Beast makes the disparity between Beast then physically becomes the hero. remake. It employs sophisticated visual and human too obvious, resulting in a Meanwhile, Belle remains the heroine effects and narrative embellishment world in which it feels like the human princess – the symbol of all that is good to differentiate the film from its source and the fantasy never truly intertwine. – throughout the animation. From material and prior adaptations, while This will present a challenge for the songs that firmly place the film in keeping the ‘spirit’ of the original story. Disney’s 2017 live-action; from the ‘classic Disney’ mode, to the inanimate Despite the beauty of Gans’ film’s short teaser trailer and concept objects – cutlery, crockery, lamps – sets, props and costumes, its focus images of Cogsworth and Lumière so that can talk, sing, and dance, it’s clear on visuals over story does not retell far released, the director Bill Condon that, while Cocteau’s original was a the story well, resulting in a film that is clearly following in Cinderella’s symbolic poetic adaptation, Disney’s perhaps would have worked better style, and combining live-action animation of Beauty and the Beast as a silent movie. In this retelling, with digitally-animated characters. created a more cinematic experience Belle is blonde and wears much more In the absence of digital technology, for viewers, since the advancement decorative dresses, and the narrative Cocteau used cinematography and in technology allowed the fairy-tale includes her two sisters; this suggests the Beast’s surroundings to create to be told with fewer limitations. that the director has clearly revisited the magical surrealist imagery that Cocteau’s film and the original story is still well known today, such as the Technology and Narrative: for inspiration, using sophisticated candelabra arms protruding from walls, the Live-action Version CGI effects to create a much more and the breathing fireplace. These complex film than Disney’s. These humanised inanimate objects were When technologies change, so do digital effects have changed the way of course not in the original stories. the ways we tell stories. Like other the fairy-tale is told once again. While Disney’s Lumière and his friends are Disney classics such as Cinderella Cocteau placed an animatronic mask inspired by Cocteau’s vision, resulting (1950, 2015) and The Jungle Book over Jean Marais’ head to represent in the iconic characters children and (1967, 2016) which have received the Beast, Gans decided to animate adults alike are so familiar with today. live-action remakes, Christophe Gans’ the Beast’s face against live people. Without the technical constraints of 2014 French language version La Cocteau’s interpretation makes it harder Cocteau’s time, those talking objects Belle et la Bête starring Léa Seydoux for audiences to separate the Beast may not have existed, signifying and Vincent Cassel is an interesting from the human (so that the viewer that a fairy-tale has the potential for rebirth every time the tale is retold, be it through something as grand as a film or play, to something as humble as a spoken bedtime story.

Sinead McCausland is a writer, filmmaker, NFTS and BFI Film Academy Alumni, and second-year undergraduate living in South Wales. Beauty dines with the Beast in an illustration by Anne Beauty Anne by dines with the Beast in an illustration domain Public Anderson.

49 Stranger Things 50

Image © Netflix Claire Kennedy finds the perfect text for challenging conventional ideas about genre – and it’s both familiar and very very strange...

51 he concept of genre helps audiences to predict how far they will enjoy (or not, as the case may be) any given media text. For broadcasters, distributors and on-demand services like Netflix, genre offers a logical organisational system that enables audiences to make informed decisions about the next box-set binge that their Sundays were designed for. More importantly, it is also a way for producers to plan content and predict success. I want to consider this concept through a case study of Stranger Things, a Netflix Original and summer sci-fi fantasy hit set in 1983 Indiana, which has met praise from critics and audiences alike. On IMDb it averages an exemplary rating of 9.1/10 from over 95,000 people. At its most basic, the term genre means a type or category of media product. At a more complex level, it is an unwritten agreement between producers and audiences as to a set of expectations of codes or conventions based on past experience. Tick enough boxes and the audience will be satisfied that their expectations have been fulfilled. Stranger Things is sold by Netflix as a ‘sci-fi fantasy’. What does the audience expect from these two genres? Futuristic technology? Check. Monsters? Check. Phenomena that don’t belong in our reality? Check. Adventures and mysteries and good versus evil? Check, check and check! If you like sci-fi and you like fantasy, you’ll watch it. Simple! But genre must be more complex than that, otherwise we would be bored of seeing the same thing over and over. Genres can become stagnant if overly repetitive; so in defining them, there must be room for innovation. Genre should not be seen as a space that limits creativity with a definitive list of ingredients; perhaps it is better described as a starting point, a set of expectations that create a space where creativity can be inspired through the challenge and exploration of media form. Fantasy + Sci-fi + 80s Retro = ? In Stranger Things this hybrid of two genres creates the feeling of something new without taking audiences into obscurity. When Eleven (yes, that’s a character’s name!) telekinetically flips a van, we can tick ‘magic’ off our fantasy check-list. Team that with expositional dialogue explaining the science behind her superhuman skills, and we have a sci-fi tick. The show’s narrative themes of Image © Netflix

52 good versus evil are synonymous to both. However, setting the narrative in the 1980s moves the production beyond its genre expectations. The period is, after all, neither futuristic nor mythical. So why do audiences accept it? The 1980s works as a retro setting for audiences in two ways. For lots of older viewers it is a setting based on the nostalgic reminiscence of youth, for younger an unknown past, a simpler pre-digital time where you could not Google your way through rites of passage. Nancy and Jonathan find the ‘Demogorgon’ in a picture in a dark-room; this discovery would have lost charm and tension if they had just zoomed into it on a smart phone. If that doesn’t quite satisfy sci- fi fans, scientists creating a portal to a parallel universe complete with alien creatures definitely covers all bases. It’s safe to say, though, that ‘sci-fi fantasy’ does not fully define Stranger Things. With coming-of-age storylines, and horror conventions galore, in many ways it deserves a more sophisticated categorisation. The genres put forward are more a matter of marketing than quantifiable fact. With an adolescent cast, a ‘coming-of-age’ narrative is almost inevitable, so does not need stating outright. To define it up front as ‘horror’ would perhaps set up some unfulfillable expectations, and risk narrowing down its appeal to a niche horror audience – who might then be disappointed. A conservative blurb ‘This programme is: scary; ominous’ in the details section acknowledges potential horror elements, while recognising that it has much more to offer. Most generic texts reflect the time in which they were made; their conventions represent the values of the contemporary producers and/or audience. This is a little different. Set in 80s small-town America, Stranger Things involves a core group of young characters united by attendance at the same school. Mike and his friends represent working class teenage boys embarking on an adventure as they ‘come-of-age’; a popular premise. But compare these to actual 80s media products which feature a similar ‘coming-of-age’ theme – Stand By Me, Ferris Beuller’s Day Off, E.T., anything by John Hughes – and you will notice key differences, particularly in the ensemble cast. Unless in an urban setting, the primary cast in the 80s films is exclusively white. This is not the case in Stranger Things. African American actor Caleb McLaughlin stars as Lucas Sinclair, an equal in the dynamic of the ensemble, with his ethnicity not called upon as a narrative device. Instead his character drives the narrative. Familiar but Different Despite the way it uses its different genre elements to create something new and exciting, Stranger Things feels so familiar. It’s hard not to think of Stand By Me, as four characters in the midst of puberty plan their adventure in a den; E.T., as children on bikes out-cycle the shady government who are after their friend; Alien, as we walk the futuristic yet grimy hallways as greenish lights flash and cast bars of foreboding shadows – all to a Carpenter- esque score. Spotting the intertextual references is half the joy of Stranger Things, and they are so blatant they are clearly intended to be spotted. Perhaps such confidence

53 is only possible in an age when productions can play audience expectations are set up, fulfilled, then betrayed around so confidently with once sacred genre boundaries. in a way that needs a conscious self-awareness to do so. Such playfulness allows us to move Stranger Things With a little blurring of time and space, a cocktail of into a different category all together: the postmodern. genres and a media platform that means the audience Postmodernism is a movement across art and design that can go at their own pace, Stranger Things allows an is characterised by the self-conscious use of earlier styles audience their own individual experience. With so many and conventions, a mixing of different artistic styles and genre conventions packed into an eight-hour package, media, and a general distrust of theories, with an ironic it would be easy to be critical of genre-typing as too self-awareness, and a focus on form rather than meaning. simple, and feel that ‘sci-fi fantasy’ is an inadequate label; that Stranger Things is too complex and too full. Instead Evolution and Creativity we should appreciate that the concept of genre is itself more complex than the simple categorising of media As genres evolve, they pass through a series of stages products. It’s a spring board for creativity, a mirror to the from innovation and experiment, through establishing world, and a recipe with, almost, endless variations. conventions, to parody and pastiche of those conventions. What do we do when a genre is no longer new or innovative? We recycle it – except this time we have a bank Claire Kennedy teaches Media at Xaverian College. of references, we know what we are doing, and so does the audience. Stranger Things is a step back to the classic sci-fi of the 80s, celebrating it by reliving formative moments, but using irony to set up expectations, only to twist into surprise at the last moment. Nancy is supposed to get with Jonathan, Eleven is supposed to get a happy ending, and the drunk cop and emotionally unstable mum are supposed to be useless, leaving it for the children to save the day; Image © Netflix

54 from the MM vaults Genre is Dead – Long Live Genre: MM11 Creativity and Genre in TV Crime Drama: MM33

55 Lucky student Ashleigh Brown interviews James Bond’s stunt double helicopter pilot.

ames Bond is, to say the least, working out of Shoreham airport, who spent a British icon. The Bond film 11 weeks in the deserts of Morocco during the franchise is known worldwide shooting of Sam Mendes’ box-office hit, Spectre for the fast cars, the action, the (Mendes/UK-USA/2015). His skills have featured villains and of course, the romances, The character in a variety of films, such as other Bond movies, of Bond, himself, is central to the success of the Die Another Day and Casino Royale. He has also films, and is inseparable from the actors playing appeared in Vampire Academy, Red 2, The Special him at different times. Within each generation of Relationship, and Agent Cody Banks 2. I couldn’t films, we’re presented with a new Bond, from the wait to interview Jamie about his long list of original Sean Connery (1962-1971, with a final amazing experiences in the world of big budget reprise in 1983), to the wonderful Daniel Craig films – and I wasn’t disappointed when I did. (2006-2015). Audiences, though, are not always watching these actors when they are watching The Interview Bond. For behind every first-class actor, there’s a How did you become a helicopter pilot? series of doubles helping to create the illusion of the invincible spy we have all come to know so You don’t need formal qualifications well. And over the years, there have been many. of any type, prior to starting flight One who featured in the most recent Bond training, you just need to pass a medical release was the talented Jamie Chalkley. Aged before flying solo. There are a bunch of 38, Jamie is a British helicopter pilot, usually exams to pass but that just takes some

56 commitment, dedication and effort. I How did you actually move into the always wanted to fly so was keen to start film industry? as soon as possible. I went straight to initial training when I was 17, eventually It happened partly by chance. During getting my helicopter licence and a normal day in the office we got a call joining a Brighton-based company. to say we had a particular helicopter What are your thoughts about using your work available for a Bond film and, naturally, as a pilot in the film world? I got rather excited at the prospect. It turned out to be an inquiry about a two- I had always been a huge helicopter project and I ended film fan and at school up heavily involved as an took Media Studies Assistant Aerial Co-ordinator. which was my favourite subject. I also liaised directly with I never wanted to be an actor or production office about the anything like that – but I loved contracts and formalities. By the learning about how the films end of that process (about four months) were made and managed. So to I had established relationships of my combine that interest with flying own with some leading professionals has been a bit of a dream come true. including Mike Woodley (experienced Aerial Coordinator) and Marc Wolff (an

57 amazing film pilot and Aerial Director). Those relationships have flourished over the years and have led to more work.

Within this profession it’s all about the relationships! It’s about having people you know that you can work with when the pressure is on and having a mutual trust that the job will be done with minimal fuss and maximum output. Because of these relationships, I’m often personally requested on their film projects.

Being patient on set and being reliable would be good advice to anyone getting into the film world. continuity issue, as part of the shoot was The industry is very big but also very near the bottom of a large vertical crater small, it’s not unusual for people to wall, which meant that as the sun passed stick together from project to project. overhead the helicopter fell into shadow – this meant that the scene had a 60-minute How long does the filming process take? window of opportunity to get right. This depends on the size of the production and of the shoot. Bond is one The helicopter is also a of the biggest productions ‘performance limited machine’, in the world, so will always meaning that power isn’t endlessly involve several months of available, and the helicopter correspondence before you rotor blade dynamics and even arrive on location to engine performance can vary start shooting. The filming considerably with the altitude and itself is usually a couple of days flying; temperature. So performance in however if the helicopter is required in the the desert is nowhere near as good as, background, it will probably be needed say, here in the UK. If working in a dusty for several days. Obviously continuity or sandy environment, special filters is required, which is always challenging may have to be fitted. At the end of each when shooting outside due to changing day on Spectre we used a high pressure light, shadow length and rain. But they air hose to blow all the sand off the have scores of very clever people that helicopter and we ran a special chemical keep an eye on that. As a pilot you just wash through the engine to clean the need to make sure you do exactly the intake compressor to maintain maximum same thing with each shot and keep an possible performance on the next run. eye on things like whether your window is open or closed, how your seat belt and Spectre was filmed near Erfoud, Morocco, headset is placed etc [...] All the little with an entire production unit of some details need to be 100% the same. 300 people all set up within the desert! Filming for these helicopter Continuity is one of the hardest stunt scenes took 17 days in total, things to manage whilst filming, with 11 days on set and 3 days but with helicopters, it proves flying to and then from Morocco. even more difficult. When using choppers, there are usually two Morocco was an interesting flying, one to film and another to place to have worked in, as it perform just as when filming an actor; involved lots of low level flying over they must perform in the same way for the Desert and around a volcanic each take, so no matter what the angle, crater, which was an amazing sight and the action is identical. But with helicopters experience to behold. Film flying lets this proves immensely difficult and could you do things you wouldn’t otherwise mean any number of takes. The quantity of get the chance or permission to do. light when filming Spectre was also a big

58 How did you come to ‘be’ James Bond? After working on two previous films with the same crew, they contacted me directly. The helicopter was acceptable to the Art Department so the director signed off on it. After a few meetings to work out the shot, I was part of the team again. After landing we pushed the helicopter into a marquee which served as our temporary hanger and kept the aircraft cooler when not being used. The skin temperature of one of the cars outside was at 65 degrees Celsius, with an average daytime air temperature around 45 degrees! Inside the hanger a specialist team from the UK painted the aircraft with a special mix to change the helicopter colour to silver, as the original orange didn’t fit and once filming was finished, they used a chemical wash to remove the silver colouring. Did you meet anyone during your days on set? So many brilliant people! Really, the best of the best: Oscar-winning Special Effects Supervisor, Executive Producer, Director, James Bond, some of the best pilots and aerial professionals in the world and hundreds of seriously dedicated professionals. We even had a BBQ in the desert chatting to Barbara Broccoli with Daniel Craig standing behind me! Surreal. Thoughts on Spectre? I liked it so much, I went to see it twice! Daniel makes an excellent Bond and I really like that Spectre went a bit old school with the cheeky humour and gadgets, as well as keeping the huge stunts as real as possible. Sam Mendes is an excellent storyteller Owen Davey recommends a new and the film was beautifully shot. horror film with a difference. What’s next on the film agenda? The thing with this industry is you never really know. There are so many possibilities and potential jobs that come out of nowhere then change or are lost just as quick. As for the next country [...] there are also plans to visit Turkey, Germany and Russia! As ever [...] I’m always standing by. Although Jamie may never have the delight of being the face of Bond himself, he hasn’t exactly missed out on the action that would have come with the character. Wishing him all the best of luck with his career and future films, Jamie Chalkley is definitely one to look out for in the credits!

Ashleigh Brown is a student at Collyer’s College, Horsham.

59 Owen Davey revisits the familiar horror territory of witchcraft, with a historic New England context, a family psychodrama, and an unexpected feminist perspective.

hat do you think But a cabin in the woods, a paranoid about when you group within, being picked off one- think about witches? by-one by a supernatural aggressor? What do you think This is not new stuff, as back issues about when you think about witch of MediaMag will confirm. Like The films? The Witch, the debut feature Thing, however, The Witch is elevated from writer/director Robert Eggers, by its superior direction, script, acting will challenge those views and give and, ultimately, believability. Robert you something better, whether Eggers’ terrified and confused puritan unexpected or long hoped for. family are so real in their vulnerability, The film tells the story of a their ignorance and their hardship 17th-century northern-English family, that at times The Witch feels as much excommunicated from their puritan a family drama in the tradition of Christian plantation in America’s New British social-realism as it does an England for being, well, too puritan. American horror. And that realism – The family begin to scrape a living the refusal of Eggers’ script to paint on a small farm on the edge of a any one character as either wholly forest wilderness until, one day, the flawed or wholly trustworthy – pulls youngest of the five children, a baby, the viewer into a situation in which is taken into the woods by a witch no allegiance to any one character and killed, his blood used in ritual. can be given without doubt. And so begins a nuanced, perfectly The film’s best trick is to show you lit and historically-designed story of the witch perform murder right at a family destroying itself, much in the beginning, yet to still have you the same way that John Carpenter’s doubting its responsibility for the 1982 sci-fi-horror The Thing told a family’s demise thereafter. The blame story of paranoia, accusation and begins to fall – ironically, perversely – at dangerous human nature beyond its the feet of their own puritanical and overt narrative of a besieged group uncompromising beliefs in Christian antagonised by a non-human foe. versions of good and evil, of tradition

60 The Witch Witch 2016 Real Robert Eggers Kate Dickie. Collection Christophel © Parts and labor / RT Features Collection Christophel / Alamy Stock Photo The Witch 61 – as are all the children – by Anya Taylor-Joy. As the eldest, Thomasin is held responsible for the younger children’s disappearances and demonic possessions; she is even accused of causing them. Yet being a young woman she cannot expect to inherit the farm or be able to take control of the worsening situation; she can hope only to be married off or sent away

to work, or to watch helpless as her Collection Christophel / Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock / Christophel Collection mother’s mind becomes increasingly unstable and her father increasingly weak-willed. Thomasin is expected to bend to old rules in a new world, rules and of paternal hierarchy, in which the night, only to be shot by white that are failing to halt this increasingly the father is both master and owner; vigilantes in the cold light of the next nightmarish situation. And the witch, viewers are encouraged eventually day, the film questioned the viewer’s terrible as she is out in the woods, to question their own definition of notion of where the real danger is becoming intriguing in her self- morality. And not a lot of horror films lay, and introduced an all-too-rare reliance and moral independence. pay the respect of asking that of you. layer of relevant social commentary Following what, in most horror But there’s more to this. George A. to an otherwise superficial genre. films, would be the film’s dramatic Romero’s 1968 film Night of The Living In that case, in that time and place, and bloody finale, in The Witch we Dead was a game-changer not simply the comment was about racism. are given a further ending that steps because it was arguably the first indie The Witch does something similar, but beyond violent sensationalism. horror, nor even because it invented this time the comment relates to issues Thomasin is faced with a question: the modern, and now inescapable, of feminism. The lead character and if she is to survive, then what kind zombie antagonist. More significantly, eldest child of the family is Thomasin, of life does she want? And at that by having its black male lead survive played with unnerving believability time, in that place, with those social

62 The Witch Witch 2016 Real RobertWitch Kate Eggers Dickie. and © Parts Collection Christophel Witch The Photo / Alamy Stock Collection Christophel labor / RT Features

boundaries, what would be the cost that could rival any slasher movie, but of freedom and is it worth paying? We in subtle, simmering questions, and an References too are faced with the uncomfortable ending so bold as to leave the viewer The Witch is now available realisation that the repressive and in a state of both euphoric victory on Blu-Ray and DVD. ignorant world in which Thomasin and blood-stained guilt, with many lives is not unfamiliar to us, and we are questions still simmering long after. made to feel almost ashamed that a The Witch refuses to compromise terrible, supernatural and destructive on both the supernatural/theological from the MM vaults power may well be the only means of and feminist/historical explanations Horror Monsters: MM35 breaking free from such repression. behind depictions of witchcraft. The Witch is meticulously accurate, Instead it combines the two, pits Repertoires of Darkness: Exploring both in its historical detail and its both interpretations against one ‘Genre’ and the Gothic: MM46 representations of folklore, and it another, magnifying the push and The More You Deny Me the uncovers a conflict of interpretations pull of each, and resulting in a film Stronger I Get: Trauma, Repression has run for hundreds of years: what that is, thrillingly, both symbolic and and Catharsis in The Babadook: MM54 is a witch? Is she a beast, evil in realist. Not since 1973’s The Wicker woman form, a servant of Satan? Man has a horror been so daringly Or is she a woman, strong-willed, conflicted. The film has found approval independent, unmarried, and fatally amongst feminists, humanists, accused by those whose rules are Christians and Satanists, after all... questioned by such freedoms? Unfortunately, modern popular Owen Davey is a former A Level Film culture has predominantly sided student, a graduate in Digital Arts, a with the former. It is easier for a film filmmaker and curator of to sell itself on sensationalism, on www.video-strolls.com uncomplicated monsters and sudden scares. The Witch challenges this assumption, asks more of the audience and pays them back not just in scares

63 Screenwriter Brendan Duggan explores the career and appeal of his hero, the acclaimed film and TV screenwriter Aaron Sorkin.

ne fateful night at screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s family residence, he woke from his slumber with an idea for a funny moment in one of the early episodes of his hit TV drama The Newsroom (2012). Tiptoeing to his desk he noted down a few reminders for the next day. These reminders became longer and longer, the notes turned to dialogue until Sorkin said ‘To hell with it!’ and began to type up the scene. This was a scene in which the main protagonist Will McAvoy (Jeff Daniels) was being held back from attacking a fellow co-worker. Drawing on his acting background, Sorkin got so involved in him to become a giant of stage and companies, handing out flyers, limo- the scene he began to act it out in his screen. But how did he do it? driving and bartending at theatres. bathroom. As if the incarnation of Will Aaron Sorkin grew up in a small Unfortunately he soon found out that McAvoy, he lunged forward – except suburban New York town where like there were quite a few good actors there was no one to hold him back many playwrights, he took part in in the big city and that he wasn’t one from going face first into his bathroom drama classes in the hope of one day of them. However, when one door mirror, resulting in a broken nose. A becoming an actor. In 1979 he studied closes another opens; whilst house- friend arrived to find him alone in his musical theatre, where he hit his first sitting for a friend, Sorkin found an house covered in blood, and advised major stumbling block. During his first old typewriter and began to write. To him to go to the emergency room, to year Sorkin failed a number of classes; his surprise he discovered he liked it, which Sorkin replied, ‘No no, read these but he persevered and graduated and soon he had written his first play pages! Just tell me if this is funny!’ in 1983. He made it through these and sent it to his old drama teacher Aaron Sorkin’s writing has become harsh years with the help of his drama who was incredibly impressed. ‘I felt increasingly popular since his teacher Arthur Storch, who taught a phenomenal confidence and a kind screenwriting debut in 1992 with Sorkin that, ‘You have the capacity of joy that I had never experienced A Few Good Men. With hits such as to be so much better than you are’. before in life’, reported Sorkin. American President (1995), The West Sorkin replied, ‘How?’ ‘Dare to fail’, Sorkin came up with the idea for Wing (1999-2006), the Oscar winning Storch said. Sorkin carried these words his first critically-acclaimed play A Few The Social Network (2010) and most with him throughout his career. Good Men after a phone conversation recently Steve Jobs (2015), Sorkin has Sorkin continued to pursue his with his sister who had both a law evolved from a starving New York dream of acting, supporting himself by degree and served with the royal actor into an accomplished writer doing pretty much anything, including navy. The play is a courtroom drama whose characters, ingenious dialogue travelling with children’s theatre set around a military lawyer who and captivating stories have allowed

64 uncovers a conspiracy whilst defending The Writing Process become the most important features two soldiers accused of murder. It in Sorkin’s films. Most screenwriters was a huge hit when it opened on Sorkin writes for both stage and understand the importance of visual Broadway at the Music Box Theatre in screen in a very distinctive fashion; as storytelling in film, and therefore keep New York City. Sorkin had dreamed a novice screenwriter, I find his writing dialogue to a minimum; Sorkin is one that one day he could perform on process fascinating and intriguing. of the few screenwriters who can get Broadway; instead it was his words One of his most interesting techniques away with extended talk as a narrative that were performing for him. is to act out scenes physically during device. Unlike other screenwriters, writing; perhaps due to his background he doesn’t plot out his stories, and From Broadway to The West in the performing arts, he often stands never knows the ending whilst he Wing up and moves around, speaking is writing. He lets his characters and dialogue to an empty room. He has their objectives guide the story: Sorkin was approached by Castle found this approach very effective Rock Entertainment to write a screen in developing his characters: I seldom plan ahead, not adaptation of his hit play and the because I don’t think it’s good For me, the writing experience rest, as they say, is history. A Few Good to plan ahead, there just isn’t is very much like a date. It’s Men went on to be nominated for an time. As a writer, I don’t like not unusual that I’m really Academy Award and established him to answer questions until the funny here and really smart in screenwriting; like his plays, his films very moment that I have to. here and maybe showing some would become incredibly popular. His anger over here so she sees This distinctive approach to writing real claim to fame however came when maybe I have this dark side. allows him to immerse himself in his he created the multiple Emmy award- characters and plots, knowing the winning television series The West Wing. The standout feature of Sorkin’s story could literally go anywhere. The pioneer of the political drama writing is his facility for dialogue. Sorkin is an amazing creative genre set in the West Wing of the White A theatre-goer from a very young force. As one of the most popular House gave the audience a thrilling age, he was immediately swept screenwriters of the past 10 years he is and dramatic look inside this famous away by the onstage language. This admired by fans all over the world for building. The show attracted a large passion for language, coupled with his entertaining and emotional content audience and created a considerable his playwright experience leads to and his take on the drama genre. amount of discussion among viewers. dialogue which is frequently fast-paced, Unlike many other writers who opt Sorkin went on to win his first Oscar witty and memorable, often using for the thrill-seeking plots and events with The Social Network (2012), a biopic great dramatic lines like ‘You can’t that often overshadow the characters, about Mark Zuckerberg’s creation of handle the truth’, famously spoken by Sorkin places character development at Facebook. With compelling use of Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men. the front of the story. He argues that: dialogue, and a great narrative about This meticulous use of language friendship and business, the film often results in monologues that are The trick is to follow the rules captured three Academy Awards. more than mere speeches, which often of classic storytelling [...] Drama is basically about one thing: Somebody wants something ‘I know this to be true, that I enter the world and something or someone through what I write’. – Aaron Sorkin is standing in the way of him getting it [...] whatever it is, the audience has to want it for him. A recurrent theme throughout Sorkin’s work, from The West Wing to The Social Network, is his strong emphasis on never giving up; a belief which is a truly inspirational and valuable lesson, not only in writing, but in life, for in his words: The world does not care how many times you fall down, just as long as it’s one fewer than the number of times you get back up.

Brendan Duggan is a young aspiring

The West Wing TV Series 1999 2006 USA MartinWing Sheen. West The Photo 12 / Alamy Stock Photos writer, screenwriter and playwright from Scotland.

65 What’s the current thinking about the complex role of social media in identity politics? Student Conor Coleman summarises ocial media is arguably the most significant recent recent ideas and conflicting debates about development in the world of constructing identities. the experiences of black communities using In virtual space groups under-represented by social media for self-representation. traditional media can find a voice; and individuals can cast off the constraints of real-life to present themselves in any way that they wish. Such developments would seem to represent social progress, aiding the liberation of groups and individuals alike. However, some theorists argue that the construction of identities through social media is much more complicated than it is sometimes portrayed by its supporters. They claim that, far from being a force for good, social media are often used to reaffirm dominant ideologies. This article will examine the ways in which social media can be used as a channel to reconstruct, re-imagine, or reinforce black identities. Some theorists, such as Aisha Harris, have argued that social media play a negative role in the construction of black identities. She argues that the rise of social media has image Association Press created a culture wherein black people are often subject to a process of ‘memeification’, where their likeness becomes However, it could also be argued that the campaign a decontextualised internet ‘meme’. An infamous example to celebrate blackness has also been somewhat derailed of this process was of ‘Sweet Brown’, an African-American by social media, which have simultaneously allowed for woman, whose closing line in an interview ‘Ain’t nobody the fetishisation of blackness, with people anonymously got time for that’ went viral on social media, becoming setting up Twitter and Tumblr pages that purposefully a catchphrase in the public consciousness, triggering a objectify and hypersexualise black people and black stream of user-generated content such as parodies and identities. Moreover, it could be argued that the positive remixes that appropriated Brown’s likeness and her words, gains of ‘The Blackout’ on social media largely fail to for the sake of ‘humour’. Harris believes that this process translate into real life. In fact, social media gains may not be is an unconscious reflection of a deep-rooted desire to particularly significant either, in that (mostly anonymous) see black people perform and entertain, creating an non-black commenter responses to ‘The Blackout’ are environment where black identities often racist, and reinforce dominant are fixed, and dominant attitudes ideas in society. This is perhaps towards blackness are reinforced. an example of Alan Martin’s Echo In contrast, some theorists, such #BlackTwitter Chamber effect, in that ‘The Blackout’ as Giddens, would argue that social may be reinforcing ideas already media can be an arena for the held within the black community, construction of positive black identities. An example of but perhaps not in wider society, so when the two this would be ‘The Blackout’, a campaign that originated perspectives clash, it is often quite aggressive. on the social network ‘Tumblr’, and involved a systematic Despite this, Henry Jenkins would argue that social ‘re-imagining’ and celebration of blackness. It involved media is an arena wherein ‘participatory cultures’ can black people posting pictures of themselves and sharing be established: online, interest-driven networks that pictures of others, commenting and attaching positive allow members to creatively channel the skills they hashtags, such as ‘#Goddess’, ‘#Queen’, ‘#Melanin’ and gain online into political activism and the voicing of ‘#BlackExcellence’. This, seems to suggest that black marginalised viewpoints. An example of this is ‘Black people have used social media as a tool to inspire, and Twitter’ (#BlackTwitter), a socially-constructed community to construct an image of black identity that is often that actively challenges negative representations of misrepresented (if represented at all) by the mass media. black identity in the mass media and wider society,

66 Press Association image Association Press

and reaffirms positive views of black identity through established by dominant groups in society. For example, humour, art, activism, and education. Jenkins argues online black figures, such as ‘GloZell Green’, have used that participatory cultures have the power to influence social media to create idealised and eccentric versions politics and to positively shape the world around of themselves that would not be (and indeed are not) them. An example of this is ‘#BlackLivesMatter’, a true to life, due to the restrictions of wider society. campaign spearheaded by Black Twitter, established as However, Lauren Jackson, by definition, criticises Turkle’s a means of calling out police brutality, institutionalised perspective, in arguing that although social media do afford racism, and racist prejudice in wider society. black people opportunities to construct positive, idealised However, the Marxist theorist Christian Fuchs has accused versions of themselves, it is important to remember that Jenkins of divorcing the idea of ‘participation’ from the they also afford non-black individuals the same freedom, concept of participatory democracy. Fuchs argues that often to the detriment of black people. She refers to in order to have a true ‘participatory culture’, there needs so-called ‘Digital Blackface’, a phenomenon whereby non- to be equality of ownership; black people exploit the anonymity and as social media (and the of social media to masquerade as internet as a whole) are largely black. One example of this is the directed, owned and influenced #blacklivesmatter Twitter account by large corporations with @ItsLaQueeta, which features an vested, ideological interests, image of an overweight black it can not, therefore, be claimed that they facilitate the women, under the name ‘LaQueeta’. Twitter accounts creation of ‘true’ participatory cultures. This is because, like this one often use excessive (and incorrect) African as institutions, social media websites choose who can American Vernacular English (such as the racist trope participate, how they participate, and the extent to which prefix ‘La-’) and make reference to racist stereotypes. their participation is seen. This is particularly significant Jackson makes the argument that non-black people in that marginal groups frequently do not have the same exploit social media to create racist caricatures of black access to social media resources as other, more dominant identities, and that this act of ‘online minstrelsy’ explicitly groups. For example, although Black Twitter has a large dehumanises black people, and reinforces negative ‘population’, it is still a largely ‘underground’ subculture, representations of black identity, constructed by dominant, possibly because it actively challenges dominant ideas, and, white supremacist groups, to subjugate black people. therefore, jeopardises Twitter’s access to power and profit. In conclusion, although social media may be used Another view is proposed by Sherry Turkle, who has as a tool to positively reinforce and reconstruct argued that social media allows individuals to create black identities through online campaigns (e.g. a ‘mediated identity’, in the sense that social media Blackout) and communities (e.g. Black Twitter), they affords individuals more freedom to construct idealised may also reinforce negative ideas of blackness. versions of the self than would be allowed in real life due to the constraints of society. This is particularly true Conor Coleman is a student at Durham Sixth Form Centre. for marginalised groups, who face more pressure in ‘the real world’ to fit into fixed, pre-established identities,

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