FEBRUARY 2017 ISSUE 59

POST-TRUTH RESEARCHING THE PAST BARBIE BAKE-OFF AND RISK OR ROLE THE APPRENTICE MODEL? DOCUMENTARY POKÉMON GO SHORTS

MM59_cover_4_feb.indd 1 06/02/2017 14:00 Contents

04 Making the Most of MediaMag MediaMagazine is published by the English and Media 06 What’s the Truth in a Centre, a non-profit making Post-fact World? organisation. The Centre Nick Lacey explores the role publishes a wide range of of misinformation in recent classroom materials and electoral campaigns, and runs courses for teachers. asks who is responsible for If you’re studying English 06 gate-keeping online news. at A Level, look out for emagazine, also published 10 NW and the Image by the Centre. System at Work in the World Andrew McCallum explores the complexities of image and identify in the BBC television 30 16 adaptation of Zadie Smith’s acclaimed novel, NW.

16 Operation Julie: Researching the Past Screenwriter Mike Hobbs describes the challenges of researching a script for a sensational crime story forty years after the event. 20 20 Bun Fight: How The BBC The English and Media Centre 18 Compton Terrace Lost Bake Off to Channel 4 London N1 2UN and Why it Matters Telephone: 020 7359 8080 Jonathan Nunns examines Fax: 020 7354 0133 why the acquisition of Bake Email for subscription enquiries: Off may be less than a bun [email protected] in the oven for Channel 4.

25 Mirror, Mirror, on the Editor: Jenny Grahame Wall… Mark Ramey introduces Copy-editing: some of the big questions we Andrew McCallum should be asking about the Subscriptions manager: nature of documentary film Bev St Hill 10 and its relationship to reality. 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: Public domain Tel 020 7359 8080 for details.

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30 Pokémon Go and the Future of Augmented Reality Sam Vydulinska explores the massive global phenomenon that is Pokémon Go.

34 Game-changing Shorts That Every Film Student Should See Michael Ewins introduces some of the strangest and 34 most iconic short films in the history of cinema.

38 Cartoon by Goom Who 54 Eye in the Sky: are you calling an audience? Drones, Strikes, and the Representation of Conflict 40 ‘You’re Fired’: a Marxist Maggie Miranda challenges Critique of The Apprentice the representations of A Level Media student Axel both terrorists and militia, Metz explores the capitalist and debates the moral responsibilities of modern ideology of The Apprentice. 40 43 warfare on screen. 43 Leicester: My City in the Spotlight 58 Why I Love... The Grand Harry Cunningham Budapest Hotel explores how his home Neil Paddison urges you city became a focal point to study Wes Anderson’s for the world’s media. very postmodern The Grand Budapest Hotel – and 46 John Williams: The Man introduces a whole new Who Orchestrated Our cinematographic Cinematic Lives… terminology. Part 2 of Will Rimmer’s tribute to the 62 Barbie – Risk or Role- celebrated film composer. model? A MediaMag article on 50 The Dark Cave of the Barbie? Really? Absolutely, 58 Silver Screen as a case study in Mark Ramey considers the representation, media experience of cinema-going, effects and audiences. and the history of the cinema itself – essential background 66 The MediaMag reading for Film students. Production Competition Details and deadlines for the production and writing competitions.

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Mirror, Mirror on the Wall In the past, documentary film has often been described as either ‘a 62 window on the world’, or ‘a mirror of our world’. Yet this article argues that, as Reframing all good media students Barbie are aware, ‘there is no one Have you ever tried stop-frame animation way to represent the real’. 25 with Lego, Playmobile or other objects? Or In your group, ever seen the great Adam and Joe’s Toy Stories, use the points where the narratives of Friends, Trainspotting raised in Mark Ramey’s article to make a list or Titanic (aka ‘Furends’, ‘American Beautoy’ or of the various techniques and styles used by ‘Toytanic’) are enacted by cuddly animals? (http:// documentarists to construct their own versions chocolateismyprozac.blogspot.co.uk/2007/02/ of ‘real life’. You should be able to come up my-top-10-adam-and-joe-toy-stories.html) If with further style examples of your own. so, you’ll know how much fun you can have • Choose from the following well-known film-making with toys – and Barbie is the go-to documentary titles amongst your group, so inspiration for postmodern parody and pastiche. each of you takes one title to research: • Collect a range of Barbies (and Kens, –– Planet Earth 2 (BBC1/Attenborough/2016) Midges, and other friends) in as many different styles and eras as possible, –– First Dates (Channel4/2013 -) from charity shops, younger siblings –– The Secret Life of 4/5/6-Year and nurseries – and have some fun. Olds (Channel4/2016 -) • Personalise them – create alternative identities –– He Named Me Malala (Guggenheim/2015) for them, make outfits and accessories, design –– Night Mail (Wright, Watt/1936) ‘looks’ or poses which challenge the ways Barbie is usually sold. For example: punk –– CitizenFour (Poitras/2014) Barbie, Bashment Barbie, Goth Barbie, –– Biggie and Tupac (Broomfield/2002) • Use them as the subjects of music –– Don’t Look Back (Pennebaker/1965 videos – to tell a story, challenge a • Individually, research your chosen title, lyric, parody a genre, make a point. checking out YouTube for clips, and following • Remake a classic movie scene as an animated any Wikipedia links to fill any gaps in your Barbie storyboard, keeping as close to the knowledge. Prepare a 2-minute presentation original shots and angles, creating a mise-en- on your chosen doc, explaining to the rest scène, adding your own soundtrack and so on of your group its content, style and purpose, • Use Barbie as the starting point for a 60-second with a focus on the ways it ‘represents the video presentation on body image. real’ and what it expects from its audiences. • Create a Barbie history documentary, • Listen to and discuss each other’s presentations. demonstrating her influence and As a group, use what you have learned from the changing representation over time. research presentations to plan an essay entitled: • Develop and present a pitch for a new ‘There is no one way to represent the real. Discuss.’ Barbie movie, re-positioning her for the next generation ... the possibilities are endless!

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 4 06/02/2017 14:08 Operation Julie: Researching the Past – a Practical Exercise UKTV is commissioning for a new historical 16 documentary series for its 30 Yesterday Channel. Each episode of the show will be set in a different geographical location, Pokémon and focus on a local family or dynasty which has Go influenced the area in the past – for example, by providing employment or local industry, The Wikipedia page for Pokémon Go provides a mine charitable works, patronage of the arts, or of information about its development, technical involvement in local politics or education – or issues, global availability, revenue and cultural impact. even by generating a scandal. The aim is to Use this material, further online research, and your uncover the ‘hidden’ faces behind the local area own experiences of Pokémon Go, to make notes for and introduce them to a new generation. an essay arguing one of the following topics: You are a hungry young production company • Pokémon Go represents a real risk to individual privacy determined to get a foot in the door and • Pokémon Go is a truly global phenomenon which pitch for the show. Your task is to devise a has changed gaming forever worldwide pilot for the show, based on a historic family • Pokémon Go is good for young people in your local area. Most of your research will • Pokémon Go desperately needs regulation. necessarily have to be historical, based on secondary sources, or interviews with those Bun Fight – who knew the family in their lifetime. • Prepare a research report indicating your ideas How the BBC Lost Bake-Off for the pilot programme. You will need to: Brainstorm as many TV programmes as you can think – Identify the family at the centre of your of which have migrated from one channel to another show, and explain what contribution (excluding BBC shows which move from one BBC platform to they have made to the local area and another). Big Brother (from C4 to C5) and The Voice (from BBC why they will make good television. to ITV) are two recent examples, but there are many more. – Decide on a format for your show – will • Pick two such shows which you think have taken it be a conventional documentary, very different paths, and compare and contrast with voiceover, archive footage, etc, them. For each show, consider how the branding and or can you come up with a different USP of the show have changed in line with its new format, such as drama-documentary channel identity, the advantages and losses both for with reconstructions, or an investigative the broadcasters/channels, and for the production approach in which a local celebrity sets out companies which make the programmes, and the to discover the answers to a problem? impact of the switch on the experiences of audiences. – Make a list of the sources of information you expect to explore – for example, local libraries, Town Hall Records Office, websites and online archives, reference works, local newspapers, and people you might interview with memories of the family members. – Explain some of the problems you might expect to encounter in your research, and how you expect to overcome them. – Present your report persuasively to the Yesterday Channel, justifying your choice of family, potential information sources, and the form and style your documentary will take. 20

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 5 06/02/2017 14:08 onald Trump is now President of the Nick Lacey explores the role United States. You couldn’t make it up. of misinformation in recent (Well, The Simpsons did, back in Season electoral campaigns, and asks 11, in 2000 – but that was meant to be a who is responsible for gate- joke.) So how did a narcissistic, sexist, racist get keeping online news. votes from over 60 million Americans? From a British perspective the result seems to be bizarre. Are there really that many misogynistic and xenophobic Americans? Last year there was another surprising vote: the decision for Britain to leave the European Union. This dismayed millions of young people Filter Bubble – 75% of 18-24 year-olds voted to remain. A filter bubble is a result of a What links these elections is the degree personalised search in which a website to which misinformation or, in other words, algorithm selectively guesses what propaganda, potentially influenced the outcomes. information a user would like to see, While neither the Remainers or the Leavers dealt based on information about the user exclusively in the truth, the ‘Leave’ campaign’s (such as location, past click behaviour most notorious lie (among many) was that the and search history). As a result, users UK paid £350 million a week to the EU that become separated from information could be spent on the NHS. Similarly it was that disagrees with their viewpoint, estimated that 78% of Trump’s statements were effectively isolating them in their own lies (Pomerantsev, 2016). You might expect cultural or ideological bubbles. that the internet would make it easy to check (Wikipedia) up on the truth; however it is clear that the net’s existence has created more problems in the production of news than it has solved.

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 6 06/02/2017 14:08 If the truth isn’t important then we cannot hold politicians to News Values, Gatekeepers and buried inside the newspaper, that account and Online News this front page was a lie. Clearly democracy is a the press has its own strategies for Galtung and Ruge’s (1965) classic work on generating false information; it doesn’t complete sham. the ideology underpinning the selection of need the world wide web for that. news stories showed how the production Since the early 1970s, newspaper of news is influenced by news values, such circulation in the UK has been in decline as as ‘ethnocentricity’, whereby ‘home’ news alternative sources of news have appeared (either regional or national) takes priority over – firstly 24-hour news channels, and latterly international stories. Their work was crucial the internet. Last year the Reuters Institute in understanding how news is constructed reported that 28% of 18-24 year-olds used and, although initially based upon fact, how social media as their main source of news, mediation is necessary between the ‘reality’ with Facebook their main source (http://www. of the news event and the audience. digitalnewsreport.org). In Galtung and Ruge’s This mediation is facilitated through terms, Facebook is now acting as a ‘gatekeeper’ ‘gatekeepers’, such as editors, who decide for news. So who edits Facebook news? what news to cover, and with what emphasis. Answer: nobody. Newspaper owners or proprietors influence the Well ‘nobody’ is not quite true. Of course way news is reported by ensuring their own humans do design the software (an algorithm) interests are prioritised. When asked why he was that determines what links are put on Facebook’s anti-EU, Rupert Murdoch, the Sun’s proprietor, ‘trending’ column; but their human editors were notoriously said: ‘When I go into Downing sacked last August, amidst claims that they were Street they do what I say; when I go to Brussels censoring right-wing Republican sites. Whereas they take no notice.’ So, for example, as part of the human editors rejected stories for being its campaign to persuade readers to vote for ‘biased’, ‘clickbait’ (news stories designed purely ‘Leave’, the Sun (19 May 2016) claimed ‘Brits not to generate advertising income) or ‘irrelevant’, fair! 4 in 5 jobs go to foreigners’. By November it the algorithm doesn’t. As a result, fake stories, Donald Trump on the was forced to admit, in a small print correction whether propaganda or satire, can appear campaign trail, 2016 Creative commons 3.0 © Gage commons Skidmore Creative

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 7 06/02/2017 14:08 It is clear that the Net’s existence has created more problems in the production of news than it has solved.

in the newsfeed amongst genuine stories. we might only have access to worldviews similar For example, the ‘Real News Right Now’ satirical to our own. In an interesting experiment, the site stated that 250,000 Syrian refugees had been Guardian created two fake Facebook accounts, placed on Native American Indian reservations. one supporting Trump and the other in favour This ‘story’ gained visibility on Facebook, and of the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. Five was picked up by the right-wing Fox News, as Trump supporters and five Clinton supporters well as by Trump himself; both repeated the volunteered to be Friends with the account figure as an example of the ‘fact’ that too many that was the opposite to their own political migrants were being allowed into the country. persuasion. Both sides were incredulous about On a more trivial note, the lie that Taylor Swift what they saw, and surprised by the level of had voted for Trump was seen 250,000 times hatred they encountered. By living in our social in three days on Facebook; what proportion media silo we restrict our access to the views of those viewers realised it wasn’t true? of others and, consequently, reduce our ability to understand the other side’s argument. The Filter Bubble It is not social media alone that potentially Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics guides us towards consuming fake news. Fabricated Facebook news stories aren’t Since 2009 Google has tailored our search the only reason for Trump’s victory in the US enquiries based on our search histories. Its election. For example, his campaign spent $90m algorithm predicts which sources of information on Facebook advertising, and the director of its we’re most likely to be interested in, so we digital strategy claims that this won the election. might miss out on material that challenges However, the impact of fake news must be our existing worldview. Internet activist and taken seriously. When lies are taken to be truth, Aavaz co-founder Eli Pariser has described we become victims of propaganda; and when this as a ‘filter bubble’ (see page 6), and an opinion leaders then state that the fact their example of how the internet is no longer an claims were false didn’t matter, it would appear independent medium but corporate-controlled. that we are living in a ‘post-truth’ age. An example We create our own filter bubbles on social of this is when, the day after the election, Leave media by choosing who to friend and follow. We campaigner Nigel Farage referred to the £350m are, in effect, placing ourselves in a silo where NHS claim mentioned above as ‘a mistake’.

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 8 06/02/2017 14:08 By living in our social media silo we restrict our access to the views of others, and Mistake indeed – if that is what it was. If the truth reduce our ability isn’t important then we cannot hold politicians to account and democracy is a complete sham. to understand the A post-truth world throws up some challenging other side’s argument claims. Leave campaign co-leader, Michael Gove, for example, said that the British people ... we live in an ‘have had enough of experts’. Why would a increasingly polarised former education secretary devalue expertise? Could it be that he feared that the use of world where conflict facts in the Brexit debate might show that between people many of the Leave’s arguments were lies? Did Trump become President because of becomes more likely. lies? It might be comforting to believe so; and if we, as media experts, believe in the power of the media to influence, then it is reasonable to assume that lies promoted on social media Nick Lacey teaches Film and Media platforms played some part in his electoral Studies, is the author of several Film and success. However did 60m Americans really Media textbooks and is a freelance writer vote for him because of what they read on the and regular MediaMag contributor. internet? Probably not. It is much more likely that many millions suffering economically did not so much vote for Trump, as vote against the ‘status quo’, represented by Clinton. The best advice for you MediaMag readers now is to be careful where you get your news from, and to get involved politically to help create a future based on embracing humanity’s diversity, rather than hating difference.

Follow It Up ‘Facebook has repeatedly trended fake news since firing its human editors’, Washington Post, 12 October, http://wapo.st/2e5wU2U ‘Here’s How Facebook Actually Won Trump the Presidency’, Wired, http://bit.ly/2gTtfCn ‘Bursting the Facebook bubble: we asked voters on the left and right to swap feeds’, the Guardian, 16 November, http://bit.ly/2eEPlei

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 9 06/02/2017 14:08 MM59_6 Feb2017.indd 10 Natalie (Nikki Amuka-Bird) Natalie (Nikki Leah Fox)Left: (Phoebe and 10 06/02/2017 14:08

Stefan Hill © Mammoth Productions Andrew McCallum explores the complexities of image and identity in the BBC television adaptation of Zadie Smith’s acclaimed novel, NW.

L-R Cyril Guel (Michel), Phoebe Fox (Leah), Richie Campbell (Nathan),

Stefan HillStefan © Mammoth Productions Nikki Amuka-Bird (Natalie), OT Fagbenle (Felix)

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 11 06/02/2017 14:08 ow about this for an opening Right: Charles Mnene voiceover to grab the attention of a (Tyler, 3rd from left) Media Studies student? There is an image system at work in the world. To behave in accordance with these images bores us. To deviate from them fills us with anxiety. So we wait for an experience brutal enough to break it open completely. I had to break it. The TV drama from which this comes is, it seems, self-consciously setting out to explore how we are affected by representations: for an image is never real, but an attempt to embody the real, to capture its external form by literally re-presenting it. And these words are framed in a way that suggests that this ‘image system’ ensnares us all: it is dull, because dominant images direct us to behave in certain ways and see others in certain ways; but we are too anxious to change because there are insufficient alternative images available to show us how. The voiceover has added resonance because it comes at the start of a one-off TV dramatisation of a book. NW (BBC2, 14/11/16) was originally a novel by Zadie Smith, set in the part of London that bears her title’s postcode. So the voiceover not only draws attention to thematic content, but also the medium: you are watching this, not reading it, and you will make a series of assumptions based on the images you see. It is spoken by a black woman in her mid-30s,

fairly shabbily dressed. She is standing on the HillStefan © Mammoth Productions edge of a high bridge, contemplating suicide. So what biographical details about behaving, that she feels lost. To be a black this woman can you predict? What barrister, it seems, she cannot project an image would you think upon seeing her? that is black. The only way she can break free She is, in fact, a high-flying barrister, living in a from her new image is to seek out anonymous big house, with her equally successful husband sexual relationships through the internet, and two children. Her name is Natalie, though turning up at strangers’ houses, using her old she grew up as Keisha, changing her name when Nikki Amuka-Bird accent and pretending to be a hairdresser. Her she entered the law. She, it seems, has broken (Natalie), with husband has just found out about her secret free from the image system that defines people author Zadie Smith other life: hence she is contemplating suicide. according to the colour of their skin. Or has she? (right) during the There is nothing intrinsically different in what I filming of NW Natalie, like the other have mentioned so far in the TV drama main characters in the to the exploration of identity and drama, all of whom grew image in the book. Natalie experiences up on the Caldwell Estate, the same dilemmas in the novel and Kilburn, NW6, and went to the other characters grapple with school together, is trapped issues of identity and image in both. by her image. To become For example, her best friend, Leah, a successful barrister she wrestles with the implications of being had to move so far from a woman who does not want to have her roots, projecting a children. Felix, whose story takes up a new image that involved segment of the narrative, seems happy taking on new ways of but lives with the pressures of having speaking, dressing and

Stefan HillStefan © Mammoth Productions once been an alcoholic. Perhaps the

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 12 06/02/2017 14:08 Stefan HillStefan © Mammoth Productions

best way to consider the differences between For some time, representations in the two media, then, is at at least, they did the level of audience. What is the experience of not feel trapped looking at these characters rather than reading by image. What, them? And in NW what is the experience of then, if it is not looking at the black characters in particular? so much the This is not a question thought up naively by characters who a white commentator. For the drama explicitly are stuck in explores the fetishisation of blackness in cultural this system but representations: the idea that black characters the viewers? are interesting because they are black and for What if we no other reason. This is highlighted in NW when HillStefan © Mammoth Productions view characters Felix’s father is presented with a glossy hardback Ronke Adekoluejo on a screen of photographs, taken of the residents of the (Grace) and OT like animals in a zoo: there to give us a fictional Garvey House (Marcus Garvey was a Fagbenle (Felix) flavour of authenticity without having Jamaican political leader active in the early 20th actually to engage with real life? century) in the 1970s. ‘Who said they could take a On the fringes of the action throughout NW load of pictures?’ he rages. ‘We weren’t in no zoo.’ is a young, nameless gang member. Black, The inclusion of these photographs takes wearing a baseball cap and hoodie, he is prone us back to the idea of the ‘image system’. The to extreme violence and exerts a terrifying photographs have been published, it seems, menace. Even if you have not seen the drama, because people want to look at them. Those you will be able to picture the body movements featured did not even know of their existence. he makes when confronted: the arms held wide,

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 13 06/02/2017 14:08 second and third fingers together in imitation Right: Cyril Guel of a gun, the sucking of teeth. He is pure image, (Michel) and Phoebe the archetypal stereotype of disenfranchised Fox (Leah) black youth. And he performs to type, stabbing Felix to death over a pointless confrontation. This, however, is not the brutal experience we need as viewers to break free. For in the ‘image system’ violence is the norm. Murder, from this youth, is what we expect. The brutality comes The drama in the manner of Felix’s dying. He is alone in a quiet part of the estate, absolutely silent, not explicitly even in a great deal of pain, but with his life, explores the very quickly, ebbing away from a single knife wound. It is unlike any image of dying I have fetishisation seen before. Utterly banal. Utterly horrifying. of blackness It is very difficult to write about NW because its portrayal of image and identity is so complex. But in cultural for that reason I would urge everyone to watch representations. it (and to read the book). It offers an important message for Media Studies students because of its suggestion that we live in an image system. But it also makes it clear that we are so much more than images, that we are real people. We hear Natalie’s/Keisha’s voiceover for a second time towards the end of the drama, when she steps down from the bridge, most of the action having been told in flashback from that point. Notice the subtle changes in what she says this time: There is an image system at work in the world. To behave in accordance with these images bored me. To deviate from them filled me with anxiety. So we wait for an experience large or © Mammoth Productions brutal enough to break Above: Nikki Amuka- it open completely. I had to break it. Bird (Natalie) The use of the past tense suggests she has found a way to live beyond the image system. The closing shot shows her phoning the police to inform on the killer, using her old voice from her school days. She is now willing to draw on different parts of her identity as and when needed, something perhaps made even more explicit in the closing line of Zadie Smith’s novel: ‘I got something to tell you,’ said Keisha Blake, disguising her voice with her voice.

Andrew McCallum is the Director of the English and Media Centre. © Mammoth Productions

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 15 06/02/2017 14:08 Screenwriter Mike Hobbs describes the challenges of researching a script for a sensational crime story forty years after the event.

Reporting of ‘Operation Julie’

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 16 06/02/2017 14:08 uring the night of 25 March and the morning of 26 March 1977, police officers from 11 different forces throughout Great Britain arrested 120 people suspected of involvement in the manufacture and distribution of LSD-25, a psychedelic drug, also known as acid, which induces hallucinations in its users. Codenamed Operation Julie, this was, at the time, the biggest drugs bust of any kind in the world. The arrests and the subsequent trial at Bristol Crown Court in March 1978 received considerable publicity and the affair still generates a lot of interest forty years on. My own interest in the case was sparked when a film producer approached me to write a screenplay based on these events. As I began to research all the aspects of the story, I found myself confronting some essential questions and discussing them with my producer. Why were we interested in making a film about the protagonists involved, be it the police, or, for want of a better word, the hippies involved in manufacturing the Reporting of arrests made during ‘Operation Julie’ drug? What sort of film did we actually want to make? What makes the story relevant to people today? And what type of difficulties were we going to face in accumulating the information we’d need to construct that 40-year-old story? For example, would the major players still be around to interview about crucial facts? providing support packages to Himalayan climbers; meanwhile Kemp Overcoming Obstacles vanished overseas. But at least he left It was clear that many of those we would need some writings for us to appreciate. to interview would be difficult or impossible As he awaited trial, Kemp to trace. In some cases, regrettably, that was expounded his credo to Patrick because people were no longer alive; in others, O’Brien of the Cambrian Times. it was because many of those who had been It has been my experience, and arrested and later sentenced had drawn a line that of many of those I know, that under their former drug-making and drug- LSD helps to make one realise dealing activities, and had moved on with that happiness is a state of mind their lives. They had often moved to other and not a state of ownership. countries and, with one exception, kept very Because of the realisation that quiet about their involvement. The exception contentment is a state of mind, one was Leaf Fielding, a Reading-based dealer who compensates less for unhappiness had previously been involved in turning LSD by buying things. This is why crystals into tablet form. He has recently written I felt that, if a large number a book, To Live Outside The Law: Caught by of people were to experience Operation Julie, Britain’s Biggest Ever Drugs Bust. this truth, whether by means Fielding’s book is interesting, but he was only of LSD or by means of an appropriate ever a minor player in the drama. The two major discipline, such as yoga or meditation, protagonists were Henry Todd, a hedonistic the problems resulting from consumerism all-round sportsman, who ran the London would be to a large extent solved. operation, and the fiercely idealistic Richard Kemp, who had moved to West Wales after a row with Todd and set up his own network Relevance Today there, overlaid with a genuine ‘back to the land’ This personal philosophy of Kemp’s, a genuine hippie lifestyle and personal philosophy. When (if somewhat extreme) example of hippie ideals he got out of prison, Todd set up a business in action, is one of the reasons why the story

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 17 06/02/2017 14:08 has relevance for us now. The problems brought upon the world by excessive consumerism have not eased in the forty intervening years – indeed, quite the reverse. Whether or not you agree with Kemp’s thinking, it represented an attempt to wrestle with these problems. This was a very unusual drug empire, with its roots deep in the country. It was, almost literally, a cottage industry, run in the main by quiet university-educated individuals. Of course some of them were in it for the money, but many were propelled by idealistic motives and a heartfelt desire to ‘turn the world on’. The cracking of the network and the sentencing of the participants ensured that drug rings were destined to fall out of the control of idealists and into the clutches of organised crime. The story has elements of a British Breaking Bad from an earlier, gentler age. Its mise-en- scène is vintage early 1970s: the clothes, the hair, the cars, the interior decoration, the great music, and the glaring absence of mobile phones and computers. And the central question of the narrative remains pertinent for audiences 40 years later: how much should society and its police intrude on the personal life of the individual? A Different Approach Previously, media coverage of Operation Julie has tended to follow the story from the perspective of the police. At the time of the arrests, coverage concentrated on the mechanics of the police operation. After the trial of the major players, details of these mechanics were buttressed by the length of sentences imposed. The Daily Express front page of Wednesday 8 March 1978 was breathlessly indicative of this approach: The sentences, which totalled 120 years, were the culmination of Operation Julie in which the police made a series of dawn raids involving 800 officers and brought more than 120 people to court in order to break the British industry which, they claimed, supplied half the world. Unsurprisingly, the first re-telling of the story came from Colin Pratt, a Daily Express journalist, who co-wrote Operation Julie with Detective Chief Inspector Dick Lee, who was in day-to- day charge of the police work on the case. Published in 1978, this exposé formed the basis of a serviceable (if necessarily biased) three-part TV series of the same name, screened in 1985. It tells an exciting story from the police point of view. Similarly, undercover cop on the case, Martyn Pritchard, teamed up with a journalist from the Sun to write Busted, a memoir of his

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 18 06/02/2017 14:08 time working in the field. Stephen Bentley, another policeman who worked undercover on the case, has just published his own book, Undercover: Operation Julie – the Inside Story. Leaf Fielding’s recent book is a sole counterpoint to these. My aim as screenwriter is to write a It is impossible screenplay that tells the story largely from the imagined viewpoints of both Richard Kemp and to establish Henry Todd. Although the conventional narrative an objective structure will follow the gradual tightening of the police net around them, the story will also truth ... what is dramatise the differences between them, showing important is that that the rift that develops leads to their downfall. These differences stem from Kemp’s insistence an emotional on the sanctity of the experience of ‘pure’ acid; truth is told. Todd, however, was cheerfully wedded to diluting the drug and to the idea of maximising profits. Facts, Fictions and the Law The constraints that exist when it comes to writing a screenplay can paradoxically make it easier to write. The shortage of primary sources leads to a sort of freedom. No matter how many eyewitness accounts you have, it is almost impossible to establish an objective truth. Furthermore, when it comes to dramatising actual events, there will always be an element of fiction – the words ‘based on a true story’ will alert viewers that some reshaping or reordering of events may have taken place. What is important is that an emotional truth is told. This can, of course, lead to legal issues. It was noticeable in the TV series of Operation Julie that, while most police officers were named correctly, all those involved in the manufacturing and distribution networks had been renamed, presumably on legal advice. We shall be consulting our lawyers most carefully; if we have ‘Operation Julie’ to change names too, that is a small price to pay. This process embodies the differences between documentary and drama in film- making. My screenplay will marry the tone of Withnail and I in its contrasts between urban and rural living at the time, with the building excitement of the police surrounding the hippie ‘outlaw’ community. I hope we can attract and challenge audiences with this story from a past generation. Added to the mix will be a thread that perhaps will question what personal freedoms may have been lost when Kemp’s hippie ideals were outlawed, and ask whether the quality of our lives has improved or deteriorated in our 21st-century pursuit of consumerism and profit.

Mike Hobbs is a freelance journalist, author and screenwriter.

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20 © Deposit Photos 06/02/2017 14:09 Jonathan Nunns examines why the acquisition of Bake Off may be less than a bun in the oven for Channel 4.

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 21 06/02/2017 14:09 Photo: Pixabay Photo:

our response to the 2016 battle over The nostalgia; it has to be about some time other Great British Bake Off (Love Productions, than now and sufficiently far away for us to 2010-present) between BBC and have forgotten that, actually, it was no better Channel 4 might have been a shrug. than now and quite possibly worse. Anyway, SoY what? It’s just another cheap and cheerful Bake Off has given us so much more than just reality TV show and no more significant than nostalgia, converting presenters Mel and Sue Come Dine With Me (ITV Studios, 2005-present) or and judge Mary Berry into National Treasures. Masterchef (Shine, 2005- present). Cookery shows The other judge, grumpy silver-fox Paul are everywhere, there are probably too many, Hollywood, has a place in national hearts too. and one less on BBC1 won’t make a difference. Formats are fragile things. Look at the once Alternatively you might have gone into a form mighty BBC brand Top Gear. The departure of of grief reaction. Bake Off is a national institution, Clarkson, May and Hammond to Amazon in a cornerstone of comfort telly and a nostalgic 2015 left the one time uber-show adrift under representation of the cosy, chintzy, tea-and- the short-lived stewardship of Chris Evans. With scones Britain we might all hope to go back Evans gone too, where does the brand go now? to. So it should remain in the trusted hands of Whatever you think about Bake Off, it certainly our national broadcaster, BBC. Especially now made a splash. So much so that the 2015 final that we find ourselves adrift on the stormy seas was watched by 15 million viewers, making it of Brexit, with a plummeting pound and our the highest rated UK show of the year; indeed biggest companies threatening to emigrate. Bake Off occupied the first 10 spots in the At least we could have gone back to it – had it list of most watched programmes of 2016. existed in the first place. That’s the thing about So what of the storm over its departure from

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 22 06/02/2017 14:09 the BBC? For days, the tabloids seemed to cover to hasten its demise. The recently-departed little else. Anyone would have thought there Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, John was no cataclysmic civil war in Syria and the UK Whittingdale commented that an end to the economy wasn’t on the brink of disaster. Such licence fee could mean the end of the BBC and are the news values of the tabloids; telly’s a this was ‘...occasionally a tempting prospect’. whole lot more distracting than the real world. As it is, revised funding arrangements are significantly reducing the BBC’s income. Where Does This Leave the Beeb? In July 2015, the government shifted the responsibility for paying TV Licence Fees for So what does it all mean? Probably, nothing pensioners over 75 onto the BBC itself. At good for the BBC. Bake Off was their crown jewel, an estimated £650 million pounds a year, more important even than Strictly Come Dancing the cost could pay for many a Bake Off. (BBC/2004- present), EastEnders (BBC/1985- This wasn’t the only reason. The BBC charter present), or Sherlock (BBC/2010- present). The has long required that at least 25% of its content BBC mission statement is to ‘inform, educate and be farmed out to independent TV production entertain’, a goal set by its first Director General companies. So whilst the BBC nurtured Bake Lord John Reith back in 1922. One thing helps Off, it did not own the format. That belongs to pay for another. All the BBC arts programming, Love Productions, a company known for making wildlife documentaries and 24/7 news is paid for, C4’s Benefit Street (2014) and since 2015, 70% in substantial part, by the success of the BBC’s big owned by the BBC’s arch rival, Rupert Murdoch’s entertainment brands. Big popular hits, like Bake Sky. Love Productions had seen Bake Off soar in Off, enable them to justify the continued payment value since 2010. When the BBC contract expired of the universal TV Licence Fee, the foundation Photo: Pixabay Photo: with Season 7, they increased the price from on which much of UK TV’s creative success has £6 to £25 million a season, a massive hike that been based. The fee has enabled the evolution the BBC was unable to meet. The reduction in of a broadcast ecosystem where talent has been BBC income meant that £25 million per annum able to take the risks essential to the creation of great content. The fee has nurtured innumerable shows, from Fawlty Towers (BBC/UK/1975-79) to Walking With Dinosaurs (BBC/UK/1999). Evidence can be seen on the digital channels, many of which produce little to no original content, with some existing almost entirely on BBC re-runs (Hi Dave!). If you are happy with a menu consisting of game shows, reality TV and soaps, then it doesn’t matter if the BBC goes to the wall. But if you care about great content, innovative British shows that can take on the world (and

are then sold to it), then the BBC really matters. Photo Stock Pilkington/Alamy Andrew So How Did It Happen – and Why? So how did the BBC fail to hang on to Bake Off? In particular, how did it end up with the rival Public Service Broadcaster (PSB) Channel 4? Well, this is a BBC that in the last 18 months has been struggling to come to terms with the re-engineering of its governance and charter by government ministers who are either ideologically indifferent to the BBC or eager

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 23 06/02/2017 14:09 was too much. Paying would have lead to For the Love of Bake Off substantial cut-backs in content elsewhere. The problem for the BBC is that this is a pattern. What of Love Productions? Surely with £75 Recently the BBC has lost The Voice (Wall to Wall, million in the bag they must be feeling happy? 2012- present) to ITV, the rights to Formula One Moving from the BBC means that they are free and Cricket to C4 and, from 2022, the Olympics to from restrictions over ads. The new Bake Off Euro-Sport. If the BBC cannot retain core content, can be crammed with product placements and this jeopardises the financial equation that allows supermarkets filled with branded tie-ins. C4 are the BBC to develop and nurture it in the first even now (October 2016) inviting advertisers to place. If the BBC can’t exploit its hits, why invest bid for the sponsorship rights with prices starting in them? Recent changes may exacerbate this. In at £8 million a year, stage one in C$’s, sorry C4’s, the new charter is a clause that demands the BBC full-on monetising of its new acquisition. put all content out for competitive tender. While Well perhaps not, if their BBC Studios can continue to make shows such as deal has jammed the money Holby City (1999-present), it is possible that the machine. If Bake Off C4 production will move to independent providers. flops then 100% of nothing BBC-originated content (such as Strictly and is nothing. It also harms Holby) remains copyrighted, so don’t expect a raid their reputation to appear by a rival to rob the BBC of them. However, if BBC so disloyal to those that Studios is undermined as a production hub, how had nurtured their format. are the BBC hits of the future to be developed? Others may now think twice before commissioning work Pixabay Photo: Meanwhile, Back at Channel 4... from Love Productions. The fallout from the Bake Off saga has Was this a triumph for Channel 4? Not been damaging all round, not least to the entirely. Having secured the rights for £75 show itself. As one executive commented, million (over three years) C4 has the Bake Off C4 may end up having bought no more brand; but crucially (see Top Gear) not the than ‘baking powder and a tent’. talent. Mel, Sue and Mary turned them down. Only Paul Hollywood agreed to move, leaving his the only established face on the show. Jonathan Nunns is Head of Media Studies at Collyer’s Of equal importance is the ‘Restraint of Trade’ College and moderates for a major awarding body. clause in the expiring BBC contract. C4 cannot air its version for twelve months after the last BBC screening. The BBC’s Christmas 2016 special makes it late 2017 before the show can debut on C4. With most of the show’s talent available, the BBC could have a rival out long before C4 ever screens an episode. C4 may have bought its own Top Gear disaster. As one broadcaster tweeted, Bake Off ‘…is burnt toast. Game over.’ C4 may have got the brand, but ruined the show. Some are now questioning how poaching a middle England mainstay helps C4 to fulfil its minorities’ remit? Others suggest C4 has opened a debate about its own future that could lead to privatisation, ending its privileged status as a commercial PSB.

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 24 06/02/2017 14:09 Mark Ramey introduces some of the big questions we should be asking about the nature of documentary film and its relationship to reality.

mall and big screens arguably mirror our world; if, as Film and Media students, we have an interest in ‘truthful representations’ or ‘representations of reality’, we often turn to them, almost like the witch in Snow White, to ask, ‘Which is the ‘truest’ of them all?’ Admittedly ‘truth’ and ‘reality’ are very ‘last century’ ideas in our postmodern, post-analogue age; but think about how many contemporary genres deal with them: soap opera, reality game shows, the news, and, in particular, the documentary.

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 25 06/02/2017 14:09 The Creative Treatment of Actuality INT. DAYTIME, WRITER’S HOME The term ‘documentary’ was Establishing long shot of a MAN at home, typing on his computer. coined in the 1920s by a Canadian/ ONSCREEN TEXT: British documentary filmmaker, John Grierson who famously defined it as The writer’s lair: South East England, 2016. ‘the creative treatment of actuality’. CUT to medium close-up of WRITER. This, and subsequent, definitions of Cue authoritative, well-spoken, male voice-of-God – either Sir the form have kept academics busy David Attenborough or Morgan Freeman: ever since; but it should be clear to VO any student of documentary that there are at least some significant Here we see Mr X, an academic writer, at work. similarities between the construction His species, now threatened with extinction – of filmed fiction and non-fiction. For in part because people are reluctant to read deeply.’ example, both forms select a subject, CUT to archive footage of people using phones, playing creatively record it, and then ‘deselect’ computer games, surfing the net and filming each other. footage before rearranging and editing what remains in order to emotionally CUT BACK to a close up of MR X looking miserable. engage an audience and communicate Cue sombre, non-diegetic piano music. the essentials of the story. FADE IN VO MR X For example: MR X VO I sometimes feel like I’m writing for myself. CUT TO ECU of words being typed: ‘Myself’. MUSIC FADES OUT. CUT TO: An office interior with a white-coated, male psychiatrist shot in CU. PSYCHIATRIST It is a tragic condition – Mr X is representative of many of my clients. If their sense of pointlessness doesn’t get them the predators do. CU TO SLOW ZOOM from extreme long shot to extreme close up of MR X being butchered by a member of the Government in high definition slow motion. FADE OUT.

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 26 06/02/2017 14:09 The War Game, a 1965 television documentary-style drama depicting the eff ect of nuclear war on Britain World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo Stock History / Alamy Archive World

Classic Documentary Style Although whimsical, the scenario above illustrates the key elements of the classical documentary style, which many of us would recognise. These elements include: 1. (Often) Male ‘voice-of-God’ voiceover, providing narration, Amy, 2015 linking various scenes and telling the spectator what to think. 2. The use of archive/stock footage to illustrate the narration. 3. The use of non-diegetic music to emotionally guide the spectator. 4. Interviews with people and experts connected with the subject matter. 5. Dramatic, cinematically- filmed, footage. 6. A clear ideological stance (‘Save Mr X!’) and a sense of rationalising the problem (modern technology and a barbaric Government). However, this classical style of documentary is merely one beast amongst many; many voices and many styles are now competing for

the right to tell us the ‘truth’. Indeed Photo Stock Collection / Alamy Christophel in a world where we have phrases like ‘post-truth’ and where parody occurs almost immediately, we seem to have little use of words like ‘real’ or ‘true’. Virtual Reality is after all, just around the corner, and our nostalgia for the past is fast becoming the strongest contemporary style. In this context, documentary has

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 27 06/02/2017 14:09 been redefining itself. For example, in a digital environment where no single (hegemonic) viewpoint is given priority, then documentary could just as easily be served by a collection of personal home movies and video diaries. YouTube anyone? Or maybe documentary can now only make sense when we acknowledge that we are presented with a topic subjectively through the eyes of its filmmakers as they participate in some way with the subject matter. Louis Theroux’s work with the BBC is a good example of this. The point is that there is no one way to represent the real. So, for example, in the 1950s, the fictional realism being

created by the cinematic revolutionaries Photo Stock / Alamy AF archive of the French New Wave that favoured Senna, 2010 location shooting, hand-held camera and self-reflexivity, led in part to the equally radical new waves of 196Os documentary, such as the arguably ultra- realist documentary movement of Direct Cinema and its less austere companion, Cinema Verité (effectively observational landscape footage with experimental or ‘fly-on-the-wall’ filmmaking). These cinematography techniques such as forms continued the process of rejecting time lapse and slow-motion and the the fictional cinematic conventions of eerie minimal score of composer Philip the classic form by stripping out the Glass to create a wordless representation editor in favour of long-takes, and the of a world out of balance, based on sound designer in favour of diegetic, the worldview of the Hopi Indians. unscripted and often chaotic sound. Docudrama Reconstruction Disrupting the Illusion of Others choose to recreate their subject Reality matter, like Peter Watkins’ with his 1965 We are also now used to seeing Oscar-winning War Game – a harrowing film crews intruding into the shot, if vision of a nuclear attack on the UK not the narrative. Vertov’s Man With A that was banned by the BBC on the Movie Camera (1929) still remains the grounds that it would be too upsetting seminal text for this style and, according for a general audience to watch. to a 2014 BFI poll, is ‘The greatest Other documentarists have developed documentary of all time’. Famously idiosyncratic and highly subjective the film shows its editor compiling responses to the form – for example, the the footage we then watch, as well maverick auteur Werner Herzog, who as obviously filming the eponymous argues that ‘fabrication, imagination cameraman and his movie camera. and stylisation’ are as much the domain of the documentarist as they are of There is Experimental Montage fictional filmmakers. Herzog famously We also increasingly experience noted in his artistic manifesto of no one documentary constructed through 1999, The Minnesota Declaration, that way to the lyrical and textual use of sound observational filmmakers were merely represent and image alone, in the form of ‘accountants of truth’, whereas his extended ‘poetic’ montages. For own documentaries and fiction films the real. example, the ground-breaking Qatsi were more concerned with a poetic, trilogy of Godfrey Reggio (USA/1983, philosophical reality; a reality which was 1988, 2002) blends urban and rural attained through an ‘ecstatic truth’.

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 28 06/02/2017 14:09 Senna (2010), it involves a staggering amount of professional and amateur archive footage, built around more contemporary audio interviews. There is no voice-of-God narration, and the filmmaker does not intrude into The Audience Perspective the film world. However this mix of heavily mediated archive footage, less Another way to look at documentary guarded observational material and is in terms of spectatorship. How did heartfelt testimony makes a powerful the documentary make me feel? How impression, as its box office success (top Movie poster did the subject matter and treatment UK documentary of all time) and 2016 Man with a Movie move me? Why was I bored or engaged? Best Documentary Oscar award suggest. Camera, 1929. Did I care about the characters? Did I Artist: Stenberg, But of course the story doesn’t believe the story? Questions such as Georgi Avgustovich end there. With easy access to high these remind us that documentary can (1900-1933) definition digital cameras and sound be a gripping genre, recorders such as smartphones and moving and often with photographic and film editing challenging. No wonder packages boasting interfaces that then that successive can be intuitively mastered by any governments strictly millennial worth their digitised-salt, regulate documentary- downloadable at a click, the future makers, or themselves of documentary remains positive. hijack the documentary And as for ‘truth and ‘reality’, they’re form for propaganda out there somewhere, through one purposes, consciously window or another. But whose truth presenting biased and and whose reality is anyone’s guess. unbalanced points of view for ideological and political gain. Indeed it is interesting to see how much of the CUT to an over-the-shoulder close classic canon of early up of MR X looking in confusion documentary, films at his grim reflection in a mirror. like Watt and Wyatt’s NARRATOR VO: Nightmail (UK/1936), Mr X now asks himself a very Dziga Vertov’s Man with pertinent question – where is a Movie Camera or Leni the camera’s reflection?’ Riefenstahl’s Triumph of FADE TO BLACK. the Will (Germany/1935), emerged from

Heritage Image Partnership Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo Stock Heritage / Alamy Image Ltd Partnership government departments (GPO Film Unit for Night Mail) or totalitarian regimes in communist Russia and Nazi Germany. Mark Ramey is Head of Film Studies at Digital Testimony Collyer’s College. A more recent variation of style and digital format can be seen in the compelling and heartbreaking Amy (UK/Kapadia/2015), a study of the rise and fall of tragic pop-diva Amy Winehouse. This is a set text choice for the forthcoming new WJEC (Eduqas) A Level and I’ll be writing about it in more detail in a subsequent article. Like another acclaimed film made by the same production team,

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 29 06/02/2017 14:09 n July 2016, Pokémon Go was Pokémon is of course a phenomenon Sam Vydulinska unleashed upon the world. with legions of worldwide fans. At the explores the massive It proceeded to dominate heart of the franchise is the concept of global phenomenon the public’s consciousness, Pokémon trainers venturing out into that is Pokémon Go. accumulating an estimated 75 million a mythical world to catch, train, and downloads within a month and battle Pokémon. Many Pokémon games featuring in an untold number of exist (the series is now in its seventh news headlines. Developed by Niantic, ‘generation’, and each generation the game is a unique phenomenon contains multiple game releases), for a variety of reasons, not least of but Pokémon Go is arguably the best which is that it may pave the way example of a game where a player can for a new genre of applications physically be a Pokémon trainer. It is a in the mobile gaming market. revolutionary entry in the long list of Pokémon games, which have never, How Does It Work? until now, enabled the fantasy of being Pokémon Go is an augmented a Pokémon trainer in such a ‘real’ and reality (AR) game, which is a game physically engaging way. Ultimately that takes place in a real-world the Pokémon world is a perfect fit for environment enhanced through a mobile phone-based AR game; the computer generated stimuli and data. brand has been hugely popular for Players of Pokémon Go travel the world many years and contains a concept in pursuit of Pokémon (a species of that fits the medium incredibly well. fantastical creatures), following an accurate roadmap on their phones. The Rise of Augmented However, instead of road names, Reality destinations or amenities, what they search for on this map are Zubats, AR as a concept has matured rapidly Squirtles, and (most commonly) in the information age, but is by no Pidgeys. The game uses GPS to track means new to the gaming market. In players’ locations, and alerts them fact, Niantic released a very similar when a Pokémon is near. Once found, game to Pokémon Go called Ingress the player can then attempt to capture in 2012, which could be seen as an the Pokémon, which appears overlaid experimental prototype – much of the on top of the phone’s camera feed. game-play is very similar in both of

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 30 06/02/2017 14:09 the games. Ingress, of course, lacks the of AR experiences that encourage immense branding that backs Pokémon players to physically move, but Go, and passed more or less unnoticed. it may not be too far-fetched to The success of Pokémon Go is a see how other relatively boring culmination of many factors: the and mundane activities could be strength of the Pokémon brand, that enhanced with incentivising AR brand’s suitability to the concept of goals. For example, an app could AR-enhanced mobile game-play, and turn a support call into an interactive the attainment of certain standards experience, allowing a technician in AR technology and game design. to view a caller’s camera feed and Pokémon Go is, in effect, the ‘perfect overlay visual instructions onto it. storm’ of an AR mobile game. Now that the massive potential of Learning, Information, AR games has been established, the Culture big question is: how will the market react? The mobile gaming industry is In terms of institutions of education a notorious hotbed for cloned games, and culture, the benefits of AR-based and there will undoubtedly be endless gamification could be huge. Modern repeated versions of this particular AR museums and galleries are already game formula – the roaming gangs beginning to incorporate QR codes of faintly illuminated faces won’t that present the user with online disappear anytime soon. Perhaps what content when found and scanned. This is more interesting, however, is the could be taken a step further with an possibility that new AR experiences AR experience that frames content could evolve and create a whole new with computer-generated context, or genre in the mobile gaming market. rewards the ingestion of information Pokémon Go deftly showcases the – measured through an ongoing quiz. potential of AR experiences in many Similarly, a tourist could download an ways. The game has succeeded in app that conveys relevant information its mission of provoking gamers to and encourages participation in go outside and exercise, proving local culture; when photographing a how effectively everyday tasks can historical building or site, pertinent be ‘gamified’. Promoting a healthier information could pop up on screen to lifestyle is one obvious application provide context. This type of experience

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 31 06/02/2017 14:09 has obvious advantages over standard fandom. These social connections Game mechanics are signposts, information boards, and are intensified by a mechanic *of the rule based systems/ audio books, as it has the potential game (see note at end) that divides simulations that to be adapted to particular tastes players into three teams. Players join facilitate and encourage and desired depths of information. either a red, blue or yellow team, a user to explore and As Pokémon Go’s popularity erupted becoming part of a loose alliance learn the properties of on its release, social media was bursting with a stake in outperforming players their possibility space with anecdotes of players converging of opposing teams. Thus, on top of a through the use of and interacting with each other – shared Pokémon passion, players have feedback mechanisms. ranging from heart-warming tales of an immediate bond of identification (www.lostgarden.com) blooming friendships and communities, with strangers. Pokémon fans – who, to at least one instance of opportunistic like most gamers are frequently robbery. In impromptu events that stereotyped as asocial beings – are are largely unprecedented for the able rapidly to form communities and gaming community, players found have fun meeting new people. In a themselves part of huge gatherings world where some describe the public of people (which could become as increasingly isolationist and aloof, stampedes when rare Pokémon were AR games may provide experiences spotted nearby) connected by their that encourage social bonding. Unlike

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 32 06/02/2017 14:09 traditional games, chat rooms, and never visit, or even be outside at all. propelled the concept of AR gaming online communities which provide This creates an exciting prospect into the limelight. Combine this with virtual places for people to find and for businesses and potentially even the fact that the gaming industry, engage with others like themselves, AR municipalities, as they are presented and the mobile gaming industry in games with a real-world component with a method for influencing foot particular, is highly prone to cloning encourage face-to-face interactions. traffic that can only become more and re-versioning, and we are sure The propensity of AR games to create effective as further AR games evolve to be presented with many more social gatherings could be capitalised and their popularity spreads. Thus AR games down the road. Hopefully on to great effect. Games could be an unobtrusive marketing method these new games will expand into the designed around building communities is introduced – which has already province of interesting and varied AR and enhancing meeting places with been employed to great success by experiences way beyond the release activities that immediately give McDonald’s, who negotiated a deal of the next generation of Pokémon. individuals a point of connection. with Niantic to have 3000 McDonald’s restaurants in Japan featured as Sam Vydulinska studied physics at Real World Solutions to Real Pokémon Gyms. Depending on how university before deciding he much World Problems successful such deals turn out to be, preferred writing about games and there could be a lot of money to be digital culture. One element of AR games that many made by location-based AR games businesses are excited about is how a through sponsorship and advertising. real world component can be used to Whilst Pokémon Go seems manipulate traffic. Pokémon Go is built innovative to a global audience, many around Pokéstops and Pokémon Gyms of the components and mechanics to which players must travel and spend contributing to Pokémon Go’s success some time in, as part of the game. are not new – the game is hardly a These virtual locations correspond to pioneer of AR. Yet the game will surely landmarks, public spaces and buildings be remembered as a watershed for in the real world, meaning that the mobile gaming market. After all, Follow It Up players are literally drawn to certain Pokémon Go had the most successful http://www.polygon. physical locations while playing the mobile game launch in history, despite com/2016/7/8/12128468/pokemon- game. Locations that are featured as being a highly irregular game by go-locations-gyms-friends Pokéstops or Pokémon Gyms obviously market standards. Its success could http://www.nintendo-insider. benefit greatly from this, as they will almost be considered unique, a perfect com/2016/08/pokemon-go-is-the- receive a constant influx of Pokémon combination of novel game-play most-successful-mobile-launch-ever/ Go players who might otherwise and branding; and this success has

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 33 06/02/2017 14:09 A great short film can be more experimental and digressive than a feature. Not restricted to a 3-act structure with emotional and moral resolution it can function as a microcosm or direct representation of its chosen issue.

Michael Ewins introduces some of the strangest and most iconic short films in the history of cinema.

n Film Studies, we often discuss the importance of visual grammar – how the techniques of framing, lighting, blocking, and editing can inform an audience about location, character, tone, and theme. But before these techniques could be taught, they had to be learned, and in bursts of inspiration throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries, pioneers like Alice Guy- Blaché and George Méliès developed an innovative array of films – romance, suspense, sci-fi – which laid the foundation for a grammar we still use today.

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 34 06/02/2017 14:09 Un Chien Andalou Moviestore collection Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo Stock / Alamy collection Ltd Moviestore

The most important advancements in early cinema occurred in the short form, but as the demand for spectacle increased, so did the length of the films, and movie theatres became a social hub where people could gather for a leisurely matinee or Photo Stock 12 / Alamy Photos evening show. The short was pushed to the sidelines, only occasionally popping up on a double feature of a specially curated programme. Almost 100 years later, now that the Internet is fully established as a market leader in exhibition, it’s easier than ever to watch short films – but the sheer quantity and diversity of the list, polling at #50 (it’s fourth in often the result of pure artistry. Here, the form makes it difficult to decide this list). Taken as it is from the most from across time and continents, are where to start. To make matters worse, passionate cinephiles around the ten of the most ground-breaking the entire history of the in-between globe, this count doesn’t equate and original shorts ever made… years has been left on the cutting to ignorance; it’s sheer neglect. room floor, and the film canon – A great short film, like a literary Un Chien Andalou (Luis what are generally considered to Buñuel/1929) be the most innovative and iconic short, can be more experimental and works of screen art – is almost digressive than a feature. Not restricted The first masterpiece of Surrealist exclusively dedicated to features. to a three-act structure with emotional cinema was inspired by the dreams In a poll taken every ten years, Sight and moral resolution, it can function as of Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, and its & Sound asks critics and filmmakers to a microcosm or a direct representation enthralling montage has inspired submit their ten favourite films, and of its chosen issue. It can test new decades of debate. Many scholars after the votes are counted, a final visual techniques, or re-interpret old maintain that the film conceals a list is made of the Top 50 films of all ones. With no corporate influence to socio-political meaning, but the time. In 2012, only one short made dictate their development, shorts are directors always intended for it to be

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 35 06/02/2017 14:09 With no corporate purely dreamlike, so that multiple influence to Big Apple, and cinema itself. Its meanings could emerge and expand incredible editing rhythm, arranged before collapsing back on themselves. dictate their to a shuffling, horn-based Duke Buñuel was most inspired by Buster development, Ellington song, also marks it as a clear Keaton, and Un Chien Andalou – which precursor to the modern music video. actually unfolds with something shorts are often akin to Looney Tunes logic, where the result of La Jetée (Chris Marker/1962) time and space are fully elasticised – This gorgeous sci-fi romance, which went on to inspire Monty Python. pure artistry. was remade by Terry Gilliam as 12 Monkeys (1995), is comprised entirely of photographs, and tells the story of a time traveller sent to learn the secrets behind nuclear fallout. Its central paradox is also its most compelling – a story about moving through time composed with still images – but La Jetée has a metaphorical weight that keeps critics and audiences debating over fifty years later. Marker was primarily a documentary filmmaker, and the realism of his images gives their unreality an extra degree of the uncanny.

Un Chant d’Amour (Jean Borom Sarret (Ousmane Genet/1950) Sembene/1963) A ground-breaking queer film, Borom Sarret is hailed as the first released when homosexuality was still film made by a black African to gain criminalised in the UK, Jean Genet’s international recognition, and its only cinematic work (he was a novelist social-realist style provided many and poet) remains potently erotic to international viewers with a window this day. Inspired by the style of his into Senegal’s contemporary living friend Jean Cocteau (Orphée, 1950, conditions. The story, set in Dakar, see MM58), Genet devised Un chant follows a peasant cart driver as d’amour as a silent film where the visual he carries his fares across town; textures of hair, skin, wool, and brick in voiceover he reflects on the would conjure a ‘haptic’ quality – a beggar’s lot in the face of massive feeling of skin contact between screen urban expansion. The journey allows and spectator. The plot concerns two Sembene to portray a cross-section of jailed men who long to embrace, and life, where issues of transport separate their physical incarceration doubles as the new classes and the impoverished. a metaphor for their shackled sexuality. The House Is Black (Forough Daybreak Express (DA Farrokhzad/1963) Pennebaker/1953) ‘There is no shortage of ugliness This dazzling city symphony captures in the world. If man closed his eyes the atmosphere of New York in its to it, there would be even more.’ So yawning hours, as commuters and begins the only film made by Iranian camera hop aboard the morning train poet, feminist and iconoclast Forough for a whistle-stop tour of that iconic Farrokhzad. The House Is Black is a skyline. Inspired by the montage deeply humanist film, shot with a experiments of Soviet pioneer Dziga modest but direct gaze that attempts Vertov (Man with a Movie Camera, to re-sensitise the viewer, turning 1929), Pennebaker crafted this five- their eye sympathetically toward a minute short as a love letter to the leper colony in Bababaghi Hospice. mechanics and architecture of the It’s an essay film, but Farrokhzad’s

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 36 06/02/2017 14:09 poetic sensibility leaps from the contemporary customs and rituals of manipulation of raw celluloid. Layers page to the screen, ensuring that Japan into a timeless collage of dreams, of existing film are re-exposed and it never feels dry or didactic. memory, and Oedipal symbols. It tells projected atop one another, edited the story of a young man searching for into a new form where the emotion The Act of Seeing with the song his mother used to sing, but and psychology of the original One’s Own Eyes (Stan throughout the journey she morphs images are re-contextualised. Outer Space turns 1982 horror The Entity Brakhage/1971) into several other women, including a prostitute and nymphomaniac. into a shuddering, psychotropic Stan Brakhage is best known for A baffling but wonderful film. nightmare, where the texture his cine-paintings (The Dante Quartet, of film itself becomes the force 1987), in which he scraped and Elephant (Alan Clarke/1989) haunting actress Barbara Hershey. painted onto the skin of celluloid, Produced by a young Danny Boyle, creating gorgeous films without ever and originally aired on BBC2, Elephant Michael Ewins is a freelance film journalist. shooting a frame. The Act of Seeing is is the most unflinching and harrowing a more direct work, sprung from the depiction of terrorism ever filmed. Set director’s ‘tremendous urgency’ to in Northern Ireland during The Troubles, reckon with death. It’s a 30-minute the film is comprised of several long, document of autopsies in a Pittsburgh mesmerising tracking shots, following morgue, and the experience of unnamed men in the build-up to watching is truly transgressive in its and execution of assassinations. The subjectivity. Several images prove film’s mix of documentary realism and unforgettable, particularly the sight of formal invention shocked a nation, a hand reaching inside an excavated and its name and style would be lifted torso to clean the bloodied spine. verbatim by Gus Van Sant for his 2003 film about the Columbine massacre. Grass Labyrinth (Shuji Terayama/1979) Outer Space (Peter from the MM vaults Originally conceived as one third Tscherkassky/1999) In Short: Why Short Films are the of an anthology, Grass Labyrinth is a The term ‘found footage’ is often New Blockbusters, MediaMag 11 perfect introduction to the stranger misapplied to first-person horror like Short Film: Getting it side of Japanese cinema. Terayama was The Blair Witch Project (1999), but Shown, MediaMag 16 an avant-garde poet and filmmaker, it really describes the experiments Creative Filmmaking for the and a provocateur who railed against of Peter Tscherkassky, who creates Creatively Challenged, MediaMag 33 tradition. In this short he swirls the paralysing fugue states from the

Elephant

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 39 06/02/2017 14:09 A Level Media student Axel Metz explores the capitalist ideology of The Apprentice.

he Apprentice has proven over the last 12 hiring of an ‘apprentice’ is a risky and innovative series to be a unique take on a conventional move – despite the 11 previous series on BBC TV. Ttalent show, to which we can apply a The positioning of the candidates within shots number of political theories. These reveal its is equally important: Lord Sugar always sits in underlying ideology, as well as explaining front of those he addresses, as if he controls its popular appeal in a capitalist society. them – the master teaching his apprentices. The mise-en-scène of the current series’ Specific camera techniques are used for dramatic opening sequence is perhaps the most influential effect, such as the ‘over the shoulder’ shot of Lord factor in establishing the style and purpose of Sugar gazing at the city he considers his own. the programme. Frequent aerial shots of the Couple this with his exaggerated descriptions, London skyline suggest viewers are taking a and the audience is manipulated into believing tour of Lord Sugar’s ‘business empire’, so-called Lord Sugar is some sort of unique business guru, by the narrator Mark Halliley, who himself despite the constructed nature of his character. gives the programme a sense of formality and Further notable angles include the voyeuristic importance. This melodramatic voiceover goes shots of female candidates’ shoes and powerful on to suggest that ‘one man stands firm’, as if stances, as if their stiletto heels are weaponised. Lord Sugar is the only successful entrepreneur The term ‘femme fatale’ comes to mind when in London, while ‘taking a punt’ implies that the describing the depictions of women on The

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 40 06/02/2017 14:09 Apprentice, a ‘Devil Wears Prada-esque’ reference. The opening montage showcases the number and variety of challenges to come, as well as the diversity of the candidates, while soundbites highlight particularly arrogant or comedic comments that give each an immediately dislikeable character. The use of London itself suggests that the city is the home of the British financial sector, and the day-break shots of the skyline infer that ‘business never sleeps’ – referencing both the structured life of a successful businessperson, and its unpredictability. The iconography of cars, planes and expensive suits further connote a feeling of affluence and success – a sophistication that the programme suggests can only be achieved through this ‘world of business’. The music also plays a delicately important role. The title sequence’s musical score (from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet), is deliberately intense, melodramatic and exciting: however, the producers are also subtly referencing a famous fictional rivalry; one that they hope will pan out on screen. This programme doesn’t just embody the concept of capitalism; it implicitly advocates it. The candidates are encouraged to look up to Lord Sugar as a figure of inspiration; the objective of the programme is to compete for wealth and power similar to that of a man of his stature; this is a ‘winner takes all’ battle, in which Photo: Pixabay Photo: friendships and courtesies are discouraged – only winners and losers exist in this environment. The candidates frequently depict themselves as possessing animalistic qualities, as if their skills and arrogance will allow them to better their

This programme doesn’t just embody the concept of capitalism; it implicitly advocates it.

Alan Sugar with the Photo: Press Association Press Photo: 2016 winner

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 41 06/02/2017 14:09 – by Lord Sugar and his advisors of the secrets of business; the tips and tricks of the trade. It could be argued that in some ways this is part of the appeal of the programme in the first instance; audiences share an interest in business and seek to mimic the success of Lord Sugar. As a result, The Apprentice combines both the audience theories of cultivation and of uses and gratifications, referring both to how viewers respond subconsciously to the influences of the media, but also to how audiences actively select what they consume with purpose and intent. People may, whether unknowingly or intentionally, watch The Apprentice in the hope of bettering themselves; to strive for success as the candidates do. However, from a Marxist perspective in a society in which the gulf between rich and poor seems to be widening, this aspirational fantasy arguably breeds a false consciousness, an acceptance of an unfair status quo.

Axel Metz is a Media Studies A Level student at Richard Hale School, Hertford. Photo: Press Association Press Photo:

The 2016 finalists rival contestants. Furthermore, the very nature and format of the competition subtly invites this clashing of personalities and interests; the producers understand that their audiences want to see embarrassment and failure. The The Apprentice programme thrives on Schadenfreude. Through the various mishaps and triumphs, particularly consistently weak, and particularly strong candidates are reminds us highlighted, and the producers position us to unknowingly pick sides and identify favourites – that a ruling we are given little chance to form opinions that elite owns are entirely our own. The ideas of individualism and capitalism are further emphasised through and controls these subtleties; it is clear that some candidates the means of are clearly better than others right from the start. In terms of a Marxist analysis, The Apprentice production consistently reminds us that a ruling elite owns and we should and controls the means of production and that we should all aspire to be members of this class. all aspire to The recurrent montages of London’s financial be members district, and shots of conventional luxury corporate lifestyles, reinforce an image of success of this class. both for the candidates and for the audience; both the tasks and boardroom scenes provide References us with the knowledge of how to reach this http://www.radiotimes.com/ materialistic success. It is as if we, as the audience, news/2016-11-08/7-ways-the- are also candidates in the competition of life; we first-series-of-the-apprentice-was- are being informed subtly – and not so subtly very-different-from-todays-show

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 42 06/02/2017 14:09 Harry Cunningham explores how the discovery of King Richard III’s remains and the victory of the local football team in the Premier League saw his home city become a focal point for the world’s media.

t was during an episode of comedy for a long time. In the eyes of many, panel show Mock the Week when I Leicester is a post-industrial town in realised jokes about the pedestrian the deep dark Midlands, famed for and uninspiring nature of my home its curries and its multiculturalism cityI were not just the self-deprecating but nothing much else. Over the past reserve of those of us who lived few years, however, that reputation there. Moreover, when Chris Addison has started to change, dramatically. quipped that a suitable punishment for convicted criminals was to go and ‘Make Leicester British’ live a ‘half death, half life’ in Leicester One of the few notable times that he was no doubt reflecting the views Leicester has featured in the national of the wider country. The city has media, it was capturing the headlines been at the butt of people’s jokes for all the wrong reasons. A Channel

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 43 06/02/2017 14:09 4 documentary Make Leicester that Leicester has seen record profits British brought together four recent from tourism, enabling significant immigrants living in Leicester and four investment in previously run-down British born residents. Each group spent parts of the city. A former car-park and four days living in the homes of the taxi rank have been transformed into others. Although the documentary did a new square for holding concerts and show some heartening moments, such public events, a new bus station and as a Polish immigrant experiencing a new market have both been built, Morris dancing, the documentary and a further £26 million has been was widely criticised in the local press set aside to regenerate the riverside. and condemned for trying to stir up tensions and for its opening assertion Champions that Leicester was a ‘divided city’. Suddenly the people of Leicester Letters flooded into the local paper. had a spring in their step, able to A local university professor said: feel good about the place they call it didn’t show the city I home. We now had something to recognised. One of the problems be proud of, a reason for others to was that it was an enforced social visit our city. Birmingham has the experiment which was trying to NEC, Nottingham has Sherwood do very quickly something which Forest and the legend of Robin is actually a gradual process. Hood; now Leicester has Richard III. But it was still hard not to feel that In a review in the Guardian, this was a temporary blip. There was Andrew Anthony said: an air of cynicism apparent as one if this programme was intended walked around the city. Everything as a metaphor or microcosm, would be back to normal soon, [it] does not bode well for Leicester would once again be the multicultural future. forgotten, rarely mentioned in the national and international sphere. In short it felt as if the one thing Some say that Leicester City the city had going for it, its relatively Football Club’s performance in the harmonious multiculturalism, had now Premier League was King Richard been tarnished by the programme; thanking the city from beyond the and that this was no doubt down grave for reburying him. Others say to the producers of the show who that the increased media presence wanted ‘shock value’ and higher following the discovery of the last ratings so were keen to provoke Plantagenet’s remains gave footballers conflict and controversy by picking and residents of the city a belief characters they knew would clash. that the impossible was possible. A City Fit for a King As someone who isn’t remotely interested in football, it wasn’t The reputation of the city began Leicester is a post- immediately obvious to me what was to change with a remarkable chance industrial town happening, during the 2015/16 season, discovery in September 2012. when the city’s team won the Premier Archaeologists from the University in the deep dark League against all expectations. of Leicester unearthed the bones of Midlands, famed for Occasionally I’d catch the tail end King Richard III in a local car park, of a sports report commenting on a finding they verified with DNA its curries and its Leicester City, but assumed this was evidence in February 2013. The multiculturalism, but normal. Then news of the club’s success media of the world descended on seeped into the main national news the city and the King’s re-interment nothing much else. bulletins: Leicester was back in the at Leicester Cathedral – a right hard But that reputation spotlight once again. Friends of mine won in the courts – was broadcast to regularly brought up the football club millions of people around the world. has started to change in conversation. The consensus was It raised the profile of the dramatically. typical of Leicester: ‘We’re not going University of Leicester, which led the to win, we never win at anything!’ archaeological dig, and a new visitor As the end of the football season centre has attracted so many people grew nearer and nearer, it was harder

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 44 06/02/2017 14:09 © BBC – Photographer: Guy Levy © BBC – Photographer: Gary Lineker

and harder to escape talk of the streets were filled with people game. Now talk turned to whether and all the leading national media it was possible for them to win. organisations led with Leicester City. On 2nd May 2016 Leicester won Despite the fact I still had no time the Premier League. The odds on for football, it was hard to describe this happening at the beginning of how it felt to see the city where I the season were 5000-1. Countless had lived nearly all of my life being stories flooded national newspapers talked about in such terms after being of lifelong fans who had placed bets ignored for so long. And now, as the of as little as £1 and were now looking funds pour in from the increased to cash out for tens of thousands of tourism, my city is going through pounds. Even Tom Hanks joked that perhaps its biggest regeneration in he put a £100 bet on; had he actually centuries. It is both incredible and had done this he would have banked bewildering in equal measure. an estimated £500,000. Meanwhile Gary Lineker promised – rashly, as it Harry Cunningham is a freelance journalist turned out – to present the season and graduate of Loughborough University. opener of Match of the Day in his underpants should Leicester win. Fans from all over the world flocked to the city on the day of the game that would decide the team’s fate, boosting tourism revenue even more, while a special edition of The Leicester Mercury – only recently hit by cuts and redundancies – sold out, leading to a historic second print run in the afternoon. The

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 45 06/02/2017 14:09 In the last edition of MediaMagazine, Will Rimmer discussed some of the most memorable cinematic scenes enhanced by John Williams’ celebrated music. Such is the brilliance and breadth of choice from Williams’ vast back catalogue, that we’ve decided to add to the selection. Photo: Chris Devers, Creative Commons Creative Chris Devers, Photo:

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 46 06/02/2017 14:09 1) Superman (1978): The Superman theme (opening credits) After the operatic grandeur of Star Wars, and intimate tonal switches between light and dark in Close Encounters, the score for Superman, the first big-screen incarnation of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s creation, managed in just the opening few seconds to convey to the audience a sense of uplifting power and awe, which only the most cynical could resist. Although the Superman theme recurs throughout the movie, it is the opening credits where the aural motif can be felt most strongly. Starting low, with the beats steadily picking up the pace as the credits roll, the choice of instruments work in complete Moviestore collection Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo Stock / Alamy collection Ltd Moviestore harmony to both get the blood pumping, and our emotions firmly invested in the story to follow. Drums, horns, crashing cymbals and percussion doing his day job as a Professor of Archaeology. Superman, 1978 all continue to evoke a mood of metaphysical It could be argued that Jones, like Superman, otherworldliness, as the infant Kal-El starts his has dual identities. The bumbling Clark Kent journey to Earth from the heavens, to begin a reporter persona exists as a polar opposite to quest for ‘truth, justice and the American way.’ Superman. Indy has no obvious superpowers, but The musical choices share many traits with those when teaching, his nervous, stumbling professor used at the beginning of Star Wars, and though demeanour – complete with nerdy glasses and both sequences use space as a visual background tweeds – counterbalances the rugged, masculine to start proceedings, the music here is a shade more hero we identify as a man of action. Once dressed bombastic in nature, rising up to a crescendo which in his famous leather Jacket and fedora and armed can make anybody believe they really can fly! with trusty bullwhip, Jones magically transforms, and the music elevates his status to tremendous 2) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981): effect. The Raiders march theme is used at certain ‘The Raiders March’ (desert chase key points throughout the film, but never more effectively than in the desert chase sequence, when sequence) Indy attempts to steal back the Ark from the Nazis. For another classic Williams/Spielberg Brass and string instruments, Williams’ signature collaboration, the first Indiana Jones movie, motif used to great effect throughout the 1980s, the composer again worked with the London generate a spine-tingling sense of adventure; as Symphony orchestra to create a score which remains with previous Lucas/Spielberg male protagonists to this day the ultimate in action cinema. George Luke Skywalker and Superman, the refrain signifies Lucas and Steven Spielberg took the audience that Indy is coming to the rescue. However, towards back to the 1930s and the cliffhanger adventure the end of the scene, Indy decides, almost suicidally, serials which were so popular then. Again, Williams’ to drag himself under a truck, and at this point, classical score found the right balance between Williams switches away from heroism to a style drama and tension, excitement and romance. which suggests he could, indeed, be killed at this The beats and riffs working throughout the film moment. After Indy jumps back into the drivers’ seat ultimately send the spectator into the world of and ejects the final Nazi soldier, the pace of the brass danger which Indiana Jones inhabits, but also stop instruments accelerates to match the increased to catch breath when Indy is back in the classroom, speed of the vehicle. Finally, Indy is safe, and the

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 47 06/02/2017 14:09 Raiders of the Lost Ark, 1981 Riding high on the back of 1980’s hits Platoon, Wall Street, and Born on the Fourth of July, Stone commissioned Williams to score his film about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, which he knew would be highly controversial. JFK demonstrated Williams’ versatility, as Stone’s complex narrative and editing techniques required the ability to shift musical gears quickly from scene to scene, and in many instances, within a scene itself. A great example of this ability is the title sequence, which opens on a title card quote from Ella Wheeler Wilcox: To sin by silence when we should protest makes cowards out of men.

Collection Christophel / Alamy Stock Photo Stock Collection / Alamy Christophel A militaristic drum roll assaults our ears, immediately hinting at a deep government conspiracy at the heart of the narrative, and a sense of the pathos and tragedy America’s youngest President will ultimately suffer. Pomp, dignity and even a sense of stillness emanates early on, with drum repetition matching the feel of automatic gunfire, thus undercutting any positive support the audience and wider public may feel for the military. This ceremonial feel is juxtaposed against a sense of mass slaughter

AF archive / Alamy Stock Photo Stock / Alamy AF archive typical in periods of war. The string section is made up of low sonorous cells, playing in minor keys. Music continues to overlap the title sequence, as newsreel footage is interspersed with Martin Sheen’s historical narration of geopolitical events which lead up to the assassination. The melody of the trumpet connotes high political intrigue, punctuated by further military drum rolls which both reinforce, but also potentially challenge, a sense of pride and American patriotism. These contradictions are by design, not accident; Williams set the tone for JFK by intimating tonally that beneath the surface of national pride and trust in the government, lay a complex, deadly labyrinth of lies. The prologue continues with Sheen’s narration Movie Poster JFK; analysing the US battles with both Cuba and JFK (1991) Vietnam, to the flourish of a full string section, musical timbre reflects this sense of temporary which is simultaneously emotionally challenging relaxation, drifting off to give the audience a and thought-provoking for viewers of all sense of calm as the chase sequence ends. nationalities. A ticking clock sound effect adds to the mix, and its rising intonation cleverly hints at 3) JFK (1991): Opening credits the danger to come. Metronomic in nature, the (Prologue) ticking sound is crucially played over footage of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, and Sheen’s voiceover As Williams’ status as Hollywood’s premier description of the C.I.A. involvement in the film composer was consolidated, other leading disastrous April 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. filmmakers unsurprisingly competed to work Again, image and music function dynamically with him. Williams forged strong working to set in play Stone’s thematic obsessions of relationships with mainstream studio directors conspiracy and subterfuge. During this section such as Chris Columbus; but more interesting was of the prologue, Williams also adds piano to his collaboration with the more independent, his drums, as the change of tone from upbeat iconoclastic political filmmaker Oliver Stone. (footage of JFK relaxing with his wife and children)

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 48 06/02/2017 14:09 AF archive / Alamy Stock Photo Stock / Alamy AF archive Schindler’s List, 1991 to dark and sinister (Rose Cheramie is taken to a Williams’ music fades down, and the emotional Dallas clinic after being beaten up, pleading with embrace between both men signifies one doctors that the Mafia are planning to kill the journey ending, yet another just beginning. President) illustrates how dangerous the situation Though Williams felt terrified at the has now become. The sequence concludes with responsibility of composing music for a film increased use of drums, as the build-up to an about the Holocaust, he nevertheless managed off-screen gunshot is heard, and the fatal killing to produce a score which would be the crowning of Kennedy takes place in Dealey Plaza, Dallas. glory of his career. The Schindler’s List theme JFK was to this point in time perhaps the most joins the pantheon of outstanding pieces of untypical John Williams score, yet his work on work he has created, confirming him to be one Schindler’s List would be ever more evocative and of the greatest film composers of all time. beautifully painful in its depiction of human tragedy. Will Rimmer teaches Film and Media at Knowsley 4) Schindler’s List (1993): Oskar Community College. Schindler/Itzhak Stern final goodbye factory scene Schindler’s List represented for Williams the ‘Mount Everest’ of musical scores, such was his fear of a project which both he and Spielberg knew would ultimately define their careers. The film’s main theme was characterised by a powerful yet tender violin score, repeated in the penultimate scene in which Oskar takes his leave from Itzhak and the group of Jewish factory workers. It’s a background style which doesn’t intrude on seminal images and from the MM vaults works in harmony with truly emotional dialogue. We hear a cascading sequence of notes in a John Williams: The Man With the minor key. It echoes the melody of traditional Midas Touch, MediaMag 58 Jewish songs, and at the exact moment when Film Music History: The Story of Oskar and Itzhak shake hands, there is a rising Music in Film, MediaMag 7 cadence and crescendo form the strings section. A now despairing Oskar pleads: ‘I could have The Modern Media Composer, MediaMag 8 got more out… I didn’t do enough.’ Now,

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 50 06/02/2017 14:09 e all remember those childhood days Mark Ramey considers the when we first cautiously entered the experience of cinema-going, dark cave of the silver screen. Revisit and the history of the cinema your early memories of going to the itself – essential background cinema. My own first memory was back reading for Film students. in the early 1970s when I saw The Wizard of Oz (1939) on a Christmas re-release with my grandmother; and even now, that howling, giant whirlwind that blew Dorothy to Oz fills me with terror. But who cares what the film was like? It was Did you know... the experience that mattered: the pitch-black, the • The term ‘silver screen’ comes booming sound, the dazzling lightshow; and then from the silver or aluminium that feeling of returning bleary-eyed to a familiar used to coat many cinema but uncanny world, having been transported, screens. Such coating is very however briefly, to other lands and times. During reflective, thus increasing Hollywood’s golden age of the 1930s and 40s the the clarity of images studios were called ‘dream factories’ precisely projected. The return of 3D because film triggers deep emotions and fantasies, has led to its resurgence. and this is partly facilitated by the way we watch • The word ‘cinematographe’ films – in the mysterious, exciting dark. was coined by the Lumière Even now, long after the peak year of UK cinema Brothers and comes from attendance in 1946, when over 1.6 billion tickets the Greek ‘kinema’ meaning were sold, cinema going remains an emotionally ‘movement’ and ‘graph’ powerful and popular experience: in 2015, 172 meaning ‘to write’. million tickets were sold at the UK box office, • The UK’s first multiplex was equalling figures last reached in the early 1970s. AMC Cinemas in Milton Audiences clearly still enjoy the experience Keynes; it had 10 screens of being immersed in a cinematic world and and was built in 1985. disconnected from the everyday – if they didn’t, • 74% of all UK screens are then cinemas would have disappeared long ago. owned by the five largest The mid-1970s saw UK exhibition circuits in exhibitors – Cineworld, Odeon apparent terminal decline as colour TV transformed and Vue are by far the biggest. the nation’s living rooms into modest domestic cinemas (a process still continuing today with the availability of 50-inch high-definition widescreens and surround-sound audio systems). By the mid-

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 51 06/02/2017 14:09 1980s, in the midst of the video boom, UK cinema Depression of the late 1920s and early 30s, attendance reached its nadir, and the future of nor the calamity of World War Two (1939-45) cinema looked bleak. Indeed even today we are could halt the popular acclaim and box-office much more likely to see a film on TV than at the triumphs of Hollywood’s escapist fantasies. The cinema: there were 2.9 billion viewings of feature cinema was now a refuge as well as a venue. films across all television formats except pay-per- view in 2015 – which is over 17 times the number The Post-war Decline of cinema admissions. In 1946 UK cinemas were the But post-war, Hollywood’s only home for film; in 2016 TV is the dominant form. beautiful bubble popped. Firstly, the new medium of TV hit box office figures Flashback: the Growth of Early hard; and secondly, the demographic shift towards Cinema suburban life meant that the old centrally-located But our love affair with cinema hasn’t died. To see cinemas became less of a focal point. The decline in why, we need to go further back in time, to Paris the splendour and social prominence of cinemas in in late 1895, where, in a rented room in the Grand the 1950s and 60s occurred precisely because the Café, thirty people were the first mass audience to studio system, and the mainstream audience on pay for a 20-minute film show. They had come to which it relied, had collapsed. Unloved and lacking see the ‘moving photographs’ shot by two amateur investment, many picturehouses were converted filmmakers and professional photographers, the into shops, or knocked down to create car parking. Lumière brothers. Having constructed their own camera (the cinematographe), they made ten The Rise of the Multiplex films, each lasting approximately fifty seconds But rescue was at hand in the guise of Jaws (1975) – effectively home movies – with titles such as and then Star Wars (1977). These 70s blockbuster Feeding the Baby. Such was the impressive realism films showed that there was still an appetite for the of these films that within a few years they were cinematic ‘event’, something with which TV could being shown around the world. At a screening not compete. Exhibitors realised their venues had in Russia, the writer Maxim Gorky noted he to complement this new breed of youth-orientated had entered, ‘the kingdom of the shadows’. The filmmaking; and so the multiplex boom began. projected moving image for a mass audience had Old cinemas were sometimes saved by conversion arrived; and just as today it transfixed spectators. to more screens; new cinemas were built on the These first shows were novelties, included, edge of town in reconfigured entertainment like any other act, in Music Hall performances complexes: either way the blockbuster-focussed, or fairgrounds. Indeed the early film exhibitor multi-screen cinema experience, aimed at what was likely to be a travelling showman, moving is still the dominant market of 15 to 24 year-olds about the country, much like circus performers (29% of current market share), had arrived. today. Alternatively vacant shops were hastily Today’s multiplexes are the main provider of converted in a model that borrowed from the cinematic entertainment in the UK: by the end of concept of nickelodeons in the States. The films 2015, the UK had 4,046 screens in 751 cinemas, shown at these rough-and-ready venues were not 316 of which were multiplexes. Netflix and other regarded as art but just further examples of the online subscription visual trickery and illusion that characterised many models of mid-to late Victorian parlour games. However as exhibition may be the first decade of the new 20th century wore on, growing fast, but appetites for film changed and these cheaply-made the multiplexes working-class ‘amusements’ gave way to longer are still holding filmed narratives aimed at middle-class sensibilities, their own in a very and reflecting not just bigger budgets but bigger volatile market. artistic ambition. And so, by the early 1910s, Some clever purpose built cinemas were being constructed programming with a more sophisticated client base in mind. is partly These first cinemas were often beautifully designed, helping bolster sales through ‘live-streaming’ richly furnished, and deserving of the nickname of theatre shows, musical performances and that reflected their aspirations – ‘picture palaces’. sporting events. And in terms of formats 3D, With World War One (1914-18) decimating D-BOX and IMAX continue to offer spectacle and European film industries, in particular in France, sensation to audiences in much the same way Hollywood soon established itself as the that the Lumière brothers did 130 years ago. main global player and the industry started Viewing trends are notoriously hard to predict to look like it does today. Not even the Great

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 52 06/02/2017 14:09 but the success of a recent phenomenon like ‘Secret Cinema’, whereby old cult films are given a one-off exhibition in a curated and staged space suggests there is appetite for premium-priced film events that don’t fit the mainstream model. However, it is this model that the world’s second biggest film market, China (USA is the first) is committed to: it is building 15 movie screens daily in both new and existing cinemas and is expected to have 53,000 screens by 2017; compare this with the USA, which currently has 39,000 screens. Clearly, in China too, the multiplex has a future along with the mainstream blockbuster experience it delivers. But for films and exhibition spaces that fall outside the norm like Repertory and Art House, the future looks less positive. Indeed online distribution or even multi-platform release strategies as pioneered by A Field in England (2013) remain the most likely option for low budget, experimental and foreign filmmakers. It seems that today’s cinemas remain places where Dorothy’s whirlwind can still transport you to fantastic worlds. So turn off the tablet and TV, and go and see a movie on the silver screen: it’s the dark cave where the spellbinding magic of film was born and still sparkles.

Mark Ramey is Head of Film Studies at Collyer’s College.

from the MM vaults The Decline of Repertory Cinema, Roy Stafford MediaMag 57 A Field in England, Mark Ramey, MediaMag 47

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 53 06/02/2017 14:09 bread to feed her family, and could get killed as Maggie Miranda explores this film’s part of the attack. This triggers an international representation of both terrorists dispute, debated at the highest levels of US and and militia, and questions its moral British government, over the moral, political, responsibilities in portraying and personal implications of modern warfare. modern warfare on screen. Setting The film is set in a militant-controlled good film should be able to challenge our suburb of Nairobi. But there are some major ideas or spark debate. Eye In The Sky, the factual inaccuracies in the portrayal of the first movie from Colin Firth and Ged Doherty‘s location. In reality these events took place in production company Raindog Films, questions the Eastleigh, a Nairobi district which does not politics and ethics behind the decisions made by look like this at all. There is no military guard those in authority during times of conflict. It asks on every corner; it’s a vibrant but somewhat to what extent we should trust experts, be they down-market suburb which is home to a members of the government, military or the sizeable Somali community. This immediately media, and how we decide who is ‘right’? raises issues around representation. Film has the power to shape our ideas and A Story of Real Events responsible filmmakers need to show the Eye in the Sky is based on a true story. It stars bigger picture, not just reinforce negative Helen Mirren as Colonel Katherine Powell, a stereotypes. So what image does this film, UK-based military officer in command of a top with the factual inaccuracies in its setting and secret drone operation to capture five known its factually inaccurate construct of Kenya Al Shabaab terrorists in Kenya, two of them and developing countries in general? In this British nationals. Through remote surveillance East African nation one third of the country is and on-the-ground intel, Powell discovers the deemed by some measurements to be middle targets are planning a suicide bombing in Nairobi, class and it is a fast, emerging economy. The and the mission escalates from ‘capture’ to ‘kill.’ movie itself involves plenty of commanding But as the American pilot prepares to engage figures, but not one of them is from Kenyan in a drone strike, a nine-year old girl enters the government or security. Would an operation kill zone. She is an innocent bystander, selling like this really have been conducted with

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 54 06/02/2017 14:09 have their beliefs been shaped by their culture? What would it be like to live in a situation like this? How would this community view the intervention of foreign experts and the killing of an innocent bystander? To some audiences this might be seen as a regrettable but necessary consequence of the war on terror; others may view it differently. It’s a matter of political viewpoints. In reality what are the effects of these interventions on real communities, and what might be their impact on future generations and their views of ‘the West’? These questions are particularly pertinent at this time. A Dilemma

Atlaspix/Alamy Stock Photo Stock Atlaspix/Alamy The film, written by British writer Guy Hibbert, is directed by Gavin Hood, who also made Tsotsi no involvement of the ‘host’ nation? Eye in the Sky, 2015 and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Its many ethical Furthermore, the film was not actually shot questions encouraged him to direct the film, in Kenya; it was filmed on location in Hood’s which he hoped would present challenging home country, South Africa. I wondered why questions to an audience too. Accordingly we the film wasn’t shot in Kenya – a country are invited to sit in judgment on the Western renowned for its blossoming film industry military and political characters debating the heavily supported by the Kenyan government. moral minefield of modern warfare. Some What were the politics behind this decision? audiences might shout ‘strike, do it now!’ Others Was permission sought to shoot the film in might argue wait! And the narrative crux of Kenya? And why is a South African filmmaker this plot-driven film is this dilemma: will they telling this story, not a Kenyan one? How might strike, won’t they? Will she die or won’t she? it be different if told by a Kenyan filmmaker? The film invites us, as the audience, to be Consider also for a moment the Somali adjudicator of the US and UK authorities. We are community depicted in the film. To what extent shown officials in different locations – Mirren’s

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 55 06/02/2017 14:09 Phoebe Fox, director Gavin Hood, Aaron Paul, on set Eye in the Sky - 2015 © 2015 Rex Features Everett/REX/Shutterstock by Photo

Colonel Katherine Powell at a military base in England, the British Cabinet Office in London, the UK foreign secretary on a visit in Singapore, the US secretary of state in Beijing. All these figures of authority talk to each other over satellite links in control to see their target from a distance, and deliberate about the relative merits and and to use weapons far from where we are, dangers of drone strikes. But what are the moral killing by remote control, so to speak. The drone implications when the 21st century’s war against pilots see the effects of their actions through a terror is waged by new military technologies lens instead of being in the conflict zone. Can like drones? Hood invites us to partake in the the employment of these weapons and the quandary. He addresses the personal, political tactics of drone warfare be ethically justified? and legal ethics of launching a Hellfire missile The film presents an on-going attack in ‘a friendly country that is not at war’. As argument, as Hood explains: we watch, we inevitably ask ourselves whether You can debate the political and technical it is OK knowingly to kill an innocent bystander factors that influence the use of drone if it means that other multiple lives will be strikes as much as you like, but I ultimately saved by targeting the known terrorists? want this film to remind us of the need for compassion no matter where we are in Drone Warfare the world … If a decision has to be made The film raises real issues about the in a very difficult situation like the one responsibilities and the reality of warfare. What presented in Eye in the Sky, I hope that would we do if we were the decision makers? decision would be made with respect What is the difference between history and for one another as human beings. propaganda? How will political decisions, propaganda and the war against terrorism be Gavin Hood recorded for the future? It also raises a second The film’s delivery is measured to allow these set of important questions about advances in issues and the officers’ predicament to be conflict or military technology. Is this kind of explored. The two drone pilots are shown to warfare sanitising the act of killing? After all, be emotionally affected by their actions, even the executors are at a safe distance and in no though they are not themselves even in the danger. Modern drone technology allows those conflict zone. They are depicted as having a

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 56 06/02/2017 14:09 conscience about what they are being asked to do. The male pilot, played by Aaron Paul, says, References I am the pilot, I am in command and http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ responsible for releasing the weapon’ zaki-hasan/interview-director- gavin_b_9605436.html The reality is that as long as the order is legal, making these judgments under http://www.beliefnet.com/ this kind of pressure is a part of the job for columnists/moviemom/2016/03/ drone pilots; they have to follow orders and interview-gavin-hood-of- execute. It’s the role of any soldier, and all eye-in-the-sky.html that has changed is the weaponry. But surely http://www.bleeckerstreetmedia. we need to consider whether this is a good, com/eyeinthesky ethical or justifiable use of technology? As an audience we leave the cinema asking many questions. And I think that is exactly what a good film should do.

Maggie Miranda is a Freelance Contributor and Film Instructor at Global Jaya IB School, Tangerang, Indonesia.

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 57 06/02/2017 14:09 Neil Paddison urges you to study Wes Anderson’s very postmodern The Grand Budapest Hotel – and introduces a whole new cinematographic terminology.

re you in need of a media staycation? If is perpendicular, the people will stand so, why don’t you check in to one of or sit at 90 or 180 degrees to that. cinema history’s most bewitching Planimetric framing is a postmodern technique; hotels... The Grand Budapest Hotel (USA/ it draws attention to the form of the text itself Germany/UK/2014). Here are five and so becomes self-referential. It also presents a reasons why I love it. modern method of representation as it makes such 1. The Camerawork – Planimetric deliberate use of perspective: as Wolfflin put it: Framing the more art became capable of handling with perfect surety the resources of The quirky camerawork in The Grand Budapest foreshortening and spatial recession, Hotel helps to define the world of its characters, the more decidedly does the desire whilst also driving its narrative. Film theorist make itself felt for pictures which have David Bordwell describes Wes Anderson’s style assembled their content in a clear plane. of camerawork as ‘planimetric’, borrowing a term used by Heinrich Wolfflin in Principles of For Bordwell, planimetric framing can suggest Art History (1915). This style is not unique to Wes naivety through its apparent simplicity, or Anderson, but it is a striking feature of the film. oppression through its apparently formal Bordwell defines planimetric framing as, broadly, staging, like a posed photograph. In The Grand Budapest Hotel the technique reflects both the frontal presentation of the action. You oppressive world the characters inhabit, and frame people against a perpendicular the naivety they sometimes rely on to not give background, as if they were in a police up in despair. The train carriage sequence in line-up. Usually you face them to camera. Part 2, when Gustave appears momentarily to A good example is the breakfast be defeated, captures this tension perfectly: conversation between Gustave and Madame M. GUSTAVE D. As Bordwell puts it, in which You see? There are still faint glimmers the people and the setting aren’t observed of civilisation left in this barbaric from an oblique angle; if the background slaughterhouse that was once known as

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 58 06/02/2017 14:09 ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock Photo Stock Inc./Alamy Press, ZUMA

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) Photo: Pixabay Photo:

humanity. Indeed, that’s what we provide in single line. He makes some images our own modest, humble, insignificant -- look like group portraits or [an] over- posed high-school Yearbook shot. (sighs deeply) Oh, fuck it. For Bordwell this creates Here Gustave highlights the dichotomy of a somewhat awkward formality, peace and war at the heart of the film. His a sense that we are looking from following expletive then ironically captures a distance into an enclosed world both his civilised concierge side with his that sometimes looks back at us.’ barbarous use of taboo language. Planimetric framing then, uses technical codes The editing in The Grand Budapest Hotel is to support the narrative. It can also be argued that masterfully economic. One of my favourite the use of wide shots can be dehumanising, and examples is near the start of Part 5 when a long the precise, clockwork movement of the camera shot of Jopling shows him kick-starting his bike. We throughout the movie both trivialises and oppresses hear the synchronous sound of the engine firing, the characters, creating comedy. Anderson but this is almost immediately cut into, and we’re repeatedly uses crash-zooms and whip-pans as well left to imagine the subsequent roar of its engine, as direct cuts, with what Bordwell calls ‘compass echoing an earlier shot of Jopling riding the same point’ editing, for example often ‘parking the camera bike down a narrow street. The editing also offers up on the axis of action’ between two characters having the occasional red herring: a shot of Agatha’s head a conversation. However, compare the kaleidoscopic poking out of the rooftop skylight is followed by effect used when Zero and Agatha are on the the close-up on a headline: ‘local girl’s head found merry-go-round, where the characters briefly step in laundry basket.’ We are then simultaneously into the revolving world of the camera on its axis, horrified by the decapitated head of Serge’s and share the dream-like vision of the film director. sister, whilst relieved to learn it is not Agatha’s. Anderson’s very personal use of planimetric framing also helps to define him as an auteur 2. It’s a Meditation on Realism director. Bordwell highlights Anderson’s fondness for In an interview for the New York Times, Anderson crowding people together in layers said, ‘The particular brand of artificiality that I like rather than stretching them along a to use is an old-fashioned one.’ He was referring

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 59 06/02/2017 14:09 to the use of model animation in preference to clearest when the barbaric prison guard spares CGI. It’s liberating to acknowledge that both look the cakes from damage, unable to destroy these fake; what’s important is the willing suspension symbols of genteel society and civilisation. of disbelief that the audience chooses. The Grand The ending of the film offers up a memorable Budapest Hotel constantly draws attention to story- comment on realism. Zero says of Gustave, ‘I think telling and the nature of tall tales. Ludwig says his world had vanished long before he ever entered there is a ‘moat full of crocodiles’ outside the prison it -- but, I will say: he certainly sustained the illusion – ludicrous given the alpine setting. And Gustave with a marvellous grace!’ This is a comment on asks on behalf of the audience, ‘who drew this?’ the way our personalities are bound up with our when he first sees Ludwig’s unbelievably detailed perceptions of the world – and also perhaps on the escape map. There are many more references to ambition of the film itself: to maintain the illusion storytelling and artifice, including the references of the ‘moving’ image in a spectacular fashion. to the author and his ‘scribe’s fever’, clearly a made-up illness which connotes an irrational but 3. Its Narrative Structure highly creative state. Like the film it entertains us The film has a ‘nested’ narrative. We go back and yet simultaneously undermines realism. in time in steps, beginning with the girl in the The range of aspect ratios used to separate time cemetery, the author as an old man, then a periods in The Grand Budapest Hotel also draws our young man, and then old Zero’s recollection attention to the film’s form as much as to its content, of his younger self. It’s in a sense also a circular and reminds us that we are watching a movie. With narrative as we return to the cemetery at the end. a direct effect on framing, we see claustrophobically This type of narrative is sometimes referred to as framed group shots in the prison and train carriage a frame story, and The Grand Budapest Hotel is a sequences where a squarer aspect ratio is used. film which references frames frequently. There’s The soundtrack is also distracting at times: the the painting Boy with Apple, and its ‘framing’ metronomic ‘oompah’ of folksy mock-traditional of the ‘second copy of the second will’, a crucial yodelling in the cable car sequence is in step with element in the plot. Window frames are used the rhythmic metallic squeak of the swinging repeatedly in the film to frame characters and cable car, bridging a gap between the real and present worlds within worlds, within stories fantasy, in parallel with Zero and Gustave’s within stories, with dizzying recursive effect. improbable escape from assassin Jopling. Repetition is also used to create comedy. The With his Gestapo-like outfit, we are reminded sequence of punches at the reading of the will, the that for every daring escape against incredible instruction for the lobby boy to ‘take over’ in the odds, thousands more died in World War II. Society of the Crossed Keys montage sequence, Perhaps the most striking scene in terms of and the question ‘Are you Monsieur Gustave...’ on realism is Gustave’s letter as read (and perhaps the way to the monastery are all good examples. imagined) by Zero. A medium close-up on Zero The complexity of the narrative is emphasised reading the letter cuts, with a graphic match, when Zero and Gustave are on the run. As Gustave to a shot of Gustave reading the same letter. sums up their situation, Zero adds that he is Gustave is in prison, flanked by symmetrical rows ‘confused.’ The pair are shown in a long-shot atop of convicts, behind a lectern matching Zero’s, a haystack, disguised as peasants. Their costume with the Grand Budapest’s logo implausibly codes connote a pastoral scene, maybe even visible. As Gustave implores them to ‘take extra- an intertextual reference to the nursery rhyme special care of every little-bitty bit of [the hotel] ‘Little Boy Blue,’ and a visual metaphor for the as if I were watching over you like a hawk with a ‘needle in a haystack’ complexity of finding a horse-whip in its talons,’ snow begins to fall in the solution to their problems. Above all the scene prison, lending the scene a snow-globe quality, suggests nostalgia for a pre-industrial age, before again emphasising the artificiality of the scene. the possibilities of total war were realised in the The dialogue highlights Gustave’s fastidious 20th century. Elsewhere in the film, railways, attention and the use of the child-like adjective telephones, motor cars, funiculars, telegrams ‘bitty’ suggests both naivety and endearment. and newspapers point to the modern age. Even the extra features used to market the film, such as the cake recipe which appears as an 4. The Balance of Light and Shade extra on the DVD, suggest a complex relationship with reality. The recipe connotes the idea that the Zero lost his family to barbarism, and whilst cakes used in the film are not props but real, as he claims to have kept the hotel for Agatha, we well as suggesting meticulous attention to detail. might suspect he really keeps it going as a reaction The cakes become an important symbol for the or protest against the barbaric. There are many fight between civilisation and barbarity which is references to death in The Grand Budapest Hotel

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 60 06/02/2017 14:09 but the contrast between darkness and light provides much of the richness of the film’s visual language. Contrast the gothic setting for the reading of the will, with the pink and blue interior of the comedy escape vehicle, the Mendl’s delivery van. The film received a 15 rating from the BBFC for ‘strong language, sex references and brief gory images.’ But whilst violence is shown, much more is suggested. The personal story of Gustave, Agatha and Zero is given a backdrop of war, suggesting countless others facing their own life-or-death struggles. This makes our heroes’ quest seem more universal whilst simultaneously dwarfing their problems against those of the continent. The contrast is used for comic effect when Zero sees the newspaper headlines. ‘WILL THERE BE WAR? Tanks at Border,’ screams the front page, Photo Stock AF archive/Alamy before we zoom in to a second headline: ‘Dowager Countess Found Dead in Boudoir.’ This personal connection is more relevant to our heroes (and to The Grand Budapest the audience) than all-out war; hence the comedy. Hotel (2014) 5. The Skiing Sequence In some senses the film reinforces the dominant ideology of capitalism, as aligned with the multinational film industry. Zero is the eventual hero who rescues a private business from state control. The hotel is magical, maybe even sacred, with its self-dimming lights and membership of a brotherhood, The Society of the Crossed Keys, so there is no need for religion. The monks who help save Gustave and Zero are lampooned through the use of repetition, and their confessional is made much less holy with Serge’s murder. At the beginning of the skiing sequence, Zero unceremoniously knocks a statue of the Virgin Mary off a sledge and it breaks on the floor. This is not the first religious image to be removed from its higher position in the film; the Boy with Apple painting is a reference to Adam in the Garden of Eden and the notion of original sin. The painting is literally taken down and replaced with an elevated image of sex that would not have been approved of in the Bible. For pure spectacle, the animated motorbike and sled chase down the ski run is also a highlight of the film. Combining high-speed Follow It Up action, danger, and with a literal cliffhanger, David Bordwell on The Grand Budapest it includes several key elements of the action Hotel: http://tinyurl.com/pnxu284 genre: spectacle, jeopardy and special effects. Like one of Gustave’s poems, I could continue http://www.davidbordwell.net/ ad infinitum... it’s a film I love more each blog/2007/01/16/shot-consciousness/ time I watch it. The Grand Budapest Hotel is http://tinyurl.com/hdz2xba truly a unique and special place to stay. Bordwell, D. and Kristin Thompson. Film Art: An Introduction Neil Paddison is Head of Media Studies at Boston (now in its 11th edition) High School, Lincolnshire. Wes Anderson interview in the New York Times: http://tinyurl.com/nqbtjxg

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 61 06/02/2017 14:10 Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images Archive/Getty © 2004 Getty Hulton by ImagesPhoto

arbara Millicent Roberts was born at the A MediaMag article on American International Toy Fair on Barbie? Really? Well, as a March 9th 1959, delivered into the case study in representation, world by American toy-company Mattel, and a starting point for already a leading player in the toy debates about media effects market. It Is calculated that over a billion Barbie on audiences, she can’t be dolls have subsequently been sold worldwide in beat, says Emma Rafferty. over 150 countries; Mattel claims that three Barbie dolls are sold every second. In Barbie’s 2016 TV adverts (aimed at both children and parents) little girls are told to ‘be anything you can be’. A powerful message it may be, but does Barbie really encourage female empowerment or is she providing mixed messages to children?

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 62 06/02/2017 14:10 during the first year of production alone. The doll transformed the toy business when it became a vehicle for additional related merchandise (accessories, clothes, friends of Barbie, etc.), a strategy since adopted by many toy companies in order to make additional revenue. Barbie remains Mattel’s largest and most profitable line. However, sales have declined sharply since 2014. Why might this be? ‘Barbie Sings’, 1961 The Evolution of an Icon The first Barbie doll wore a black and white striped swimsuit and signature ponytail and was available as either a blonde or a brunette. She was marketed as a ‘Teen-age Fashion Model,’ with her clothes created by Mattel fashion designer Charlotte Johnson. From this passive and stereotypical beginning, Mattel has had to move with the times (though not always before the consumer). Her facial expression has changed many times since 1971, when her eyes were adjusted to look forwards, suggesting assertiveness and independence, rather than maintaining the demure sideways glance of the original model. Over nearly sixty years the Barbie doll has attempted to show that women can take on a variety of roles in life. Her career track record is impressive with a wide range of titles including Miss Astronaut Barbie (1965), Doctor Barbie (1988), and Pilot Barbie (1991) She has been

Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images Archive/Getty Hulton by Photo an Olympic athlete, a skier, and a computer engineer. She drives and owns her own cars and runs her own life, earning her own money to The Story of Barbie: Institutions and support her affluent lifestyle. As of 2017, new Audiences Barbie professions will include President and VP of the USA. Her aspirations are unlimited, Throughout the 50s, the doll market consisted her status iconic. A supporting character in the mostly of babies, designed for girls to nurture Toy Story franchise, she has been painted by and mother. But after watching her daughter Andy Warhol (the portrait sold for $1.1 million), Barbara play, Barbie creator Ruth Handler had exhibited in the Paris Louvre, and had part of the vision of a doll with adult characteristics and Times Square in New York named after her. features; and she named it after her daughter. It has thus been argued that Barbie has had a In creating a doll with adult features and significant impact on social values by conveying capabilities, Mattel claimed to enable girls to characteristics of female independence. Mattel become anything they wanted – a marketing has been applauded for encouraging girls to strategy and ethos which still underpins the ‘be anything they can be’ through imaginative marketing of Barbie today. From the start she play; but Barbie has been criticised for her ‘career was marketed to girls aged 5-8 years old; but in changes’. It’s great that she can encourage girls to order to sell to this age group, the dolls also had be anything they like but on the other hand it’s to target and meet the approval of parents. disingenuous to suggest she can change careers Barbie was one of the first toys to benefit from a in the same way that she can change her outfits. marketing strategy based extensively on the new Is this sending an unrealistic message to children? burgeoning medium of television advertising, Nor is the empowerment message entirely later copied widely by other manufacturers; like clear. In July 1992, Mattel released Teen Talk Coca Cola, Barbie dolls are universally known Barbie, which spoke a number of optional and have been ‘bought into’ worldwide. phrases including ‘Will we ever have enough Around 350,000 Barbie dolls were sold clothes?’, ‘I love shopping!’, ‘Wanna have a pizza

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 63 06/02/2017 14:10 party?’ and, more controversially, ‘Math class frame, which in reality, would have reduced is tough!’ Three months later, in response to her to walking on all fours, incapable of parental outrage, Mattel announced that this lifting anything and unable to menstruate. last phrase would be withdrawn, and offered a This anatomical impossibility has coined swap to anyone who owned a doll that spoke it. its own syndrome: a person with ‘Barbie Similar mixed messages have led syndrome’ attempts to emulate the doll’s to the insult ‘Barbie doll’ becoming a physical appearance, even though the doll derogatory term used to refer to a woman has unattainable body proportions. who is seen as an airhead or bimbo. Mattel was widely criticised back in 1963 for releasing a Barbie Babysits Messages and Values book on losing weight which advised ‘don’t eat’, and a set of scales From a psychological perspective, if we permanently set at 110 pounds, consider that the seeds of our self-worth are subliminally suggesting that one’s formed in childhood, Barbie has the potential to weight shouldn’t change. Barbie be an important role model. Toys and dolls are has repeatedly been criticised for very important in the cognitive development encouraging anorexia by suggesting of children; when OFSTED inspect playgroups to pre-pubescent girls that thin is and childminders, they pay particular attention beautiful and anything else is not. to the range of toys available for the children to play with, which must reflect diversity and equality across the races and sexes. Children Barbie and Diversity learn about themselves and others through play; In order to address the diversity of it is particularly important to give them positive Barbie’s global market, Mattel has learned to role models at this key stage of development. offer a range of representations with which girls Barbie is currently aimed mainly at girls aged 3-5 of all cultures, shapes and sizes can identify and years. The captive age group has decreased in relate. Barbie has always had a diverse range of age and range as older girls have moved on to companions, including Hispanic Theresa, Midge, more sophisticated toys, games and apps now African American Christie and her boyfriend, on offer in a highly competitive market place. Steven. Although Mattel ostensibly embraced multiculturalism from an early stage, it was still Barbie and the Female Gaze criticised: Francie, the first black Barbie doll was created in 1967 but despite dark skin her features Ruth Handler believed that it was important and hair remained European. Black Barbie, for Barbie to have an adult appearance, but launched in 1980, still retained Caucasian features. early market research showed that even then Nearly 30 years later, in September 2009, Mattel some parents were unhappy about the doll’s finally introduced the ‘So In Style’ range, intended chest, which had distinct breasts. Indeed, to create a realistic depiction of black people. throughout her various incarnations, one In January 2016, a new Barbie line up of the biggest complaints has always been was launched, including four body types, Barbie’s ‘anatomically impossible’ stature and seven skin tones, 22 eye colours and 24 hairstyles. According to Evelyn Mazzocco, Senior VP and global manager for Barbie: These new dolls represent a line that is more reflective of the world girls see around them – the variety in body type, skin tones and style allows girls to find a doll who speaks to them. Barbie has been a major player in the toy market for the best part of sixty years. Since 2014, however, sales have declined sharply; critics debate whether this is down to changing toy trends or the issue of body image. There has been a huge increase in rivals, from Bratz to the characters from Frozen and new technologically-based toys, and Barbie herself has faced an avalanche of bad press. Slow responses to the criticism and poor

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 64 06/02/2017 14:10 Slow responses to the criticism and poor management of marketing has meant that Mattel have been one step behind the consumer ... and they’ve only made big changes either when the customer demands it or sales are down.

management of marketing has meant that Mattel have been one step behind the consumer (never a good thing) and they’ve only made big changes either when the customer demands it or sales are down. Critical Reception Barbie is no longer just a brand or a doll but a universally recognised icon which perhaps explains the vitriol aimed at Amy Schumer, who is to star as the doll in a new live action film due out in 2018. Interestingly, Mattel has allowed Sony to use the brand, perhaps in a desperate attempt to modernise Barbie and to undermine the image of perfection previously cultivated around her. Certainly a less ‘perfect’ actor than Schumer it would be hard to find. So who or what is Barbie? Perfection, an aspirational role model, airhead or just a thin white blonde whose image can only undergo so many makeovers? Only time will tell whether Mattel have done enough to solve the problem of their falling sales, or whether it’s too little too late...

Emma Rafferty is Marketing Assistant at Shout Out.

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 65 06/02/2017 14:10 The MediaMagazine Competitions 2017! The 2017 MediaMag Production Competition

very year, MediaMagazine hosts a video competition to showcase the creativity, passion and production Eskills of our readers – and that means sending us your work! It’s genuinely the highlight of MediaMag’s year, and a real opportunity to share your talent and get your presence out into the world. Yes, you can enter your coursework, as long as all members of the group are credited – but you can also submit your own personal projects and work you’ve created at home or with friends. If we shortlist your production, you’ll be invited to an Awards screening, ceremony and networking reception at the prestigious NFT1 at BFI South Bank on Wednesday 5th July. To give you a taste of the competition, and to see the winners in each category, visit the webpage for the 2016 awards here: https://www. englishandmedia.co.uk/video-clips/competitions • Deadline for entries: Rule, formats and and entry form are Friday 31st March available via the MediaMag home page. • Shortlist published online: To enter, download and complete the entry form Friday 5th May and send it and your entry to: MediaMagazine • Awards Ceremony at Production Competition 2016, The English & Media BFI Southbank: Centre, 18 Compton Terrace, London, N1 2UN. Wednesday 5th July

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MM59_6 Feb 2017.indd 66 06/02/2017 14:10 The 2017 MediaMag Writing Competition: This Changed My Life

hat aspect of media studies has had an impact on your life? Perhaps you’ve been inspired by the work of a particular filmmaker, or been riveted by a box-set or a game; maybe Wyou’ve discovered a new passion through a social network, or learned a new skill – editing, sound recording, an animation package? – which has helped you to see things differently. It might be a genre of music, film, television which has captured your imagination, or a media campaign which offered you a different perspective or a new way of thinking. The choice is entirely yours. So what do we want from you? 500-750 words on a media text, event, skill, producer, experience or issue which has impacted on you and made you think – or which in some way changed your life. And that’s it! No rules (except word length); completely free choice of style, genre, tone and presentation; just your own voice, your own ideas, and a really well-written, persuasive piece of writing which will communicate your passion and interest to your readers.

We’ll publish the strongest pieces in September 2017’s MediaMag • Deadline for entries: and pay you a small fee – and the most outstanding writing Friday 31st March will receive a prize at the MediaMag Awards event in July. You can submit your writing at any time from now on by • Shortlist published online: emailing it as an attachment to: jenny@englishandmedia. Friday 5th May co.uk. Please ensure you have included your full name, contact • Awards Ceremony at details, school and teacher’s name on the first page. BFI Southbank: Wednesday 5th July

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