SEPTEMBER 2016 ISSUE 57

WOMEN ON TV NEWSPAPERS GANGSTERS ROCKSTAR MYTHOLOGY FILM AND THE LAW WHY I LOVE…

MM57_cover.indd 1 20/07/2016 12:51 Contents

12 Women in TV Steph Hendry identifies MediaMagazine is published and celebrates new by the English and Media developments in TV drama Centre, a non-profit making which offer more diverse organisation. The Centre and proactive views. publishes a wide range of classroom materials and 16 Leading Ladies – runs courses for teachers. Melissa McCarthy and the If you’re studying English Last F**k-able Day at A Level, look out for In a world where J-Law is emagazine, also published deemed plus-sized, what by the Centre. hope for ‘real’ women and their representation in Hollywood cinema? Jonathan Nunns considers the significance of the rise and popularity of Melissa McCarthy. 12 19 The Cinematic Myth of 04 Making the Most of the Gangster MediaMag Mark Ramey explores the perennial appeal of 06 A New Day for British the gangster genre, and Journalism – Or Is It? argues that it offers deeply MediaMagazine examines philosophical insights into the rise and fall of the the human condition. recently-launched tabloid newspaper, the New Day, 22 Bombs, Bangs and Bad, The English and Media Centre intended to buck the Bad Boys 18 Compton Terrace trend of ever-downward The Night Manager was a London N1 2UN newspaper sales. Telephone: 020 7359 8080 huge success for BBC Drama, Fax: 020 7354 0133 fusing together motifs 09 Can The Guardian from the worlds of both Email for subscription enquiries: Survive in a Changing [email protected] spy and gangster genres. Media Landscape? Fay Jessop explores the Neil Paddison examines versions of masculinity it Editor: some of the ways in which offers, and its links to class, Jenny Grahame the Guardian is reaching out power and sexuality. to a global digital audience Copy-editing: Andrew McCallum as print sales decline. Subscriptions manager: Bev St Hill Design: Sam Sullivan Newington Design This magazine is not photocopiable. Why not subscribe to our web package Print: which includes a downloadable and printable PDF of the current issue or S&G Group encourage your students to take out an additional £12 subscription? Cover: Happy Valley, Tel 020 7359 8080 for details. © Red Production Company/ BBC, with permission

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 2 20/07/2016 17:02 26 And Your Specialist 48 Reading ’s Subject is... Mastermind and Movies in the 21st Century Me Symon Quy goes Media teacher Austin McHale undercover to explore how reflects on the appeal of the Bond formula draws quiz shows, and his own on the political, social experiences of sitting in and cultural contexts of that big black chair. the era to stay fresh.

30 The Myth of the Rock 54 Preparing your AQA Star and Why It Needs Cross-media Study 19 Challenging Jonathan Morgan provides Why do we love nothing you with the essential more than seeing something revision guide to the cross- beautiful get destroyed? media study for AQA’s AS Andrew Parker-Law Media – but it can be used explores the narrative of as an adaptable checklist the doomed rock star. whichever exam spec you are preparing for! 34 Harry, Noah’s Ark and Us Andrew McCallum recounts 58 Generation Ambridge how his family’s role in How did an ‘everyday story 48 61 a campaign to promote of country folk’ become the partnership between the most talked about a charity and a football soap on social media? club shed light on how a Caroline Birks investigates. media campaign unfolds across different platforms. 61 Why I Love... The Results A short explanation for 38 – Why the judges' decisions and Repertory Cinema Matters the three winning entries: In Media and Film Studies we Why I Love... Film Noir; can only really understand Why I Love... Screenwriting; what’s happening now Why I Love... Television. if we understand what 34 happened in the past. Roy Stafford focuses on just one concept – that of the repertory film screening.

42 Can Film Change the Law? Student Christian Haywood considers how far film can change society.

46 Goom's Cartoon – Roland Barthes’ Narrative Theory 16

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 3 20/07/2016 17:02 Making the Most of MediaMag

Film and the Law The Newspaperewspaper IndustryIndustry This article explores films which have impacted If you’ve read the articles on the New Day on society and ultimately led to changes in the law. and the Guardian, you’ll know the pressures on Could the same be true of television programmes? newspaper circulation, and the ways the news Below is a list of TV docudramas which have industry is addressing them. You’re going to try to created huge controversies that have led to changes keep the newspaper industry afloat by creating a in government policy and/or social attitudes: template for a mini-version of a daily newspaper, – The War Game (Peter Watkins, 1965 – just as the i was originally created as a ‘lite’ what if Britain had lost WW2?) alternative to the Independent (sadly now closed – Cathy Come Home (1966 Jeremy Sandford and down). The i now has its own website, which gives Ken Loach’s drama about homelessness) a good feel of how the newspaper itself operates. – Threads (Mick Jackson, 1984 – about Have a look here: https://inews.co.uk/about/ the aftermath of nuclear war) • Pick one of the following as the basis of your new mini – Who Bombed Birmingham? (1990, a docudrama newspaper: the Guardian; the Daily Mail; the Express. which resulted in the exoneration of 6 men • Create an appropriate name for your mini- wrongly convicted of an IRA atrocity) newspaper which links it to the original, and – Hillsborough (Jimmy McGovern, 1996, which led to design a masthead and any iconography or the re-opening of the official enquiries into 96 deaths) symbols you want to associate with it. – Bloody Sunday (Paul Greengrass, 2002, • Write a one-paragraph mission statement explaining investigating the unlawful killing of 14 civil rights its point of view, aims, and target audience. Explain activists by British soldiers in Derry in 1972) your pricing policy, and how you intend to deliver – Common (Jimmy McGovern, 2014 – about the essential news stories to your audience. the punitive Joint Enterprise laws) • Brainstorm a structure for your newspaper • In pairs, chose one of these texts to research as – have a look at https://inews.co.uk for a mini case-study – you’ll find plenty of material some different ways you could break down online, but a good starting point is http:// your content into different categories. www.screenonline.org.uk. Prepare a short • Using today’s news stories to kick you off, draft presentation for the class which includes: a front page for your new paper, indicating the – An overview of the content – what’s number of front page stories, the position of the issue behind the drama? photographs, any furniture such as price, contents, – The social context social media links, etc. Make sure you focus on – How audiences and politicians appropriate front-page content and layout. responded to the drama • Draft a double-page-spread for a feature in your – What changed as a result of the drama. new paper – it can be on a topical news item, or a broader issue related to style, culture, or politics, as long as it reflects the values and mission of your paper. Make sure you focus on both the content and the design and layout of your DPS. • Pitch your new paper to the class, explaining your decisions and policy, and why you think it might succeed in recruiting a readership. And... if you’ve already been working in print for your AS production work, you’ll have ready-made skills to actually create a mock-up of your new paper.

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 4 20/07/2016 17:02 Reading James Bond Some Practical and In this article Symon Quy suggests that the Bond franchise uses Revision Activities binary opposition and the behaviours and ideologies of the villains Bond must overcome to construct a sense of British identity and values. But could Get your creative and ICT skills up to this process work for other franchises, including those from other nations? speed by practising on some visuals • Pick another franchise with which you are familiar – it could be: and infographics, using MediaMag – a superhero franchise like Batman, Iron Man, Mad Max, articles to help. This is useful both or anything from the Marvel Cinematic Universe for your blog and for exam revision – an action franchise such as , , Pirates of the Caribbean or Mission Impossible – adapting information from one – a franchise associated with a particular genre, such form into another is an excellent as fantasy, rom-com, horror, comedy, SF, etc. revision technique. Here are three – a particular sequence adapted from literature, such suggestions from this issue: as , Lord of the Rings, etc. The Newspaper Industry – a franchise from a non-Western culture such as China, India or Japan. Read the data on the circulation • In your group, list the different villains encountered in your chosen and readership of the Guardian and franchise, and explore the criminal activities and iconography associated its websites (page 10). Create a chart, with each one. Using online sources, conduct some contextual research to identify the cultural concerns each villain represents. Remember that graph, PowerPoint presentation although these may be global franchises, they will draw on the ideology or infographic which represents and values of the national film industry which produced them. the decline in the Guardian’s print • Share your findings with the class, using clips, stills and critical circulation, and the ways the website analysis from the MediaMag archive to illustrate the ideological is reclaiming new readers online. threats posed by the villains in your chosen franchise, and the light Bond in the 21st Century they shed on the identity and values of the franchise hero. On pages 53-55, the author analyses the most recent Bond villains and the changing threats they pose to the UK. Using screenshots, clips, and found or googled images, create a presentation which demonstrates visually how each Bond Baddie represents different ideologies and political perspectives. You could present your ideas as a slide-show with commentary, a video essay, a Prezi or PowerPoint, Powtoon or eMaze. Creating Timelines Several articles in this issue refer to Finally: respected and long-standing texts The MediaMag Production Competition Videos! or genres which have survived the test of time – think gangster movies, Our winning videos are now online on the MediaMag home page at Mastermind, or The Archers. Conduct www.englishandmedia.co.uk/video-clips/competitions some online research into one of these, and represent its development and they make inspiring viewing. Don’t forget to check them out – over time, and the ways it has they make great examples for textual analysis, and there’s lots to changed to reflect changing times, learn from them in terms of editing and pace, creative approaches to ideas and technologies. Software mise-en-scène and locations, and ingenious use of sound, graphics such as ReadWriteThink.org or and titling. And next year, it could be your work up there... timetoast.com may be useful here.

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 5 20/07/2016 17:02 M M 5 7 f i n a l

2 6 0 . 7 . 1 6

4 p m . i n d d

6 2 0 / 0 7 / 2 0 1 6

First edition of The New Day

1 7 : 0 2 Phillips clarified her position and the intention was to speak to MediaMagazine examines the on 4 March 2016 at the end of ‘modern families in the language rise and fall of the recently- the newspaper’s first week: they use and with the positivity about what they feel in their lives’. launched tabloid newspaper, About six million people buy the New Day, intended to a newspaper in Britain every Campaigning Magazine buck the trend of ever- day. Sitting down and flicking downward newspaper sales. through the paper with a cup Journalism Style of tea in hand is one of this The look and feel of the newspaper, country’s greatest traditions. with its turquoise masthead, was n 29 February 2016, Trinity But newspaper sales have often closer to a magazine in format, Mirror Newspapers been dropping for some time. in theory fitting for a newspaper published the first edition Some people have turned to marketed to people who don’t like of the New Day, described the internet for news – others newspapers. Sample stories from the as ‘the first new standalone daily UK just wanted a change from 4 March edition included ‘soft’ non- national newspaper for 30 years’. In traditional newspapers. news features, such as ‘Internet trolls fact, almost exactly 30 years earlier, The recent fall in newspaper could face five years in jail’ and ‘Mum the previous title, Today, was launched sales has been vertiginous, yet not knows best: what’s the best piece of on 3 March 1986 by regional irreversible according to Simon Fox, advice your mother ever gave you?’, newspaper entrepreneur Eddy Shah, Chief Executive of Trinity Mirror: while articles from the 6 April edition and later sold to Rupert Murdoch’s include ‘Social media sites named and News International. It lasted for the Over a million people have shamed by NSPCC’ and ‘You really can best part of 10 years, closing its stopped buying a newspaper die of a broken heart’. Obviously all presses on 17 November 1995. The in the past two years but we newspapers carry some articles better Independent was also launched in 1986 believe a large number of suited to magazines, but they seemed on 7 October, and continued them can be tempted back more preponderant in the New Day. publishing until 26 March 2016, when with the right product. And were they really targeting people it folded (although its sister They both took great pains to aged 35 to 55? These two editions of publication, the i, remains, as does its stress that the New Day would not the newspaper, very similar in tone online presence). The European, be a ‘lite’ version of the Daily Mirror. and style, would suggest that they are founded in 1990 and lasting until aiming at people even younger. Much 1998, was only published once a week. The Right Product? of the content would seem to be aimed Clearly survival is tough for new at twenty-somethings, or parents with newspapers in the cut-throat world The newspaper was targeted at young children. The majority of the of an industry whose daily sales have women and men – a significant articles seemed to target young women been declining rapidly for many ordering according to Phillips. particularly, and the lack of space given years. So what caused Trinity Mirror The New Day will tell you to topics such as sport, coupled with to back the launch of the New Day? everything you need to know the fact that sport was not positioned on any given day. It will be in its customary space on the back New Day, New Market pitched at people aged 35 to 55, pages, meant that sports fans (often, The New Day was launched to tap people who want a more modern but by no means exclusively, men) into a new market, not specifically to approach to news. It will be a were not especially well catered for. pinch readers from other newspapers. ruthless edit of the day, with In the launch press announcement, balanced analysis, opinion and Balanced and Apolitical Alison Phillips, the paper’s Editor, said: comment, but no political line. However, it is fair to say that the There are many people who She’s certainly right about the New Day did stick to its pledge to aren’t currently buying a ruthlessness of the editing. On 6 April provide balanced comment without newspaper, not because they 2016, a day when the revelations of the following any political party line. The have fallen out of love with Panama papers were dominating most 4 March edition included an even- newspapers as a format, but news media, the story was confined to handed and concise (although long because what is currently a brief two-paragraph item totalling by the New Day standards) piece on available on the newsstand is fewer than 50 words. So whether the effects that leaving or staying not meeting their needs. This the New Day did ‘tell you everything in the EU will have on immigration paper has been created as a you need to know’ is open to doubt. – although the article made no result of customer insight and But it appears that the editor aimed attempt to tackle the economic is the first newspaper designed to produce a paper which avoided arguments involved on either side. for people’s modern lifestyles. traditional structures, and which Moreover, the 6 April edition readers could digest within 30 minutes; carried an article on pages 22-23,

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 7 20/07/2016 17:02 headlined ‘Executions hit a record researched; as Alison Phillips high, says Amnesty’. This exposed a said in the issue of 4 March: disturbing trend without being overly We imagined our prospective sensationalist; the ‘record’ cited only readers as Kate and Rob, who went back to 1989, but it was hard wanted something different from to disagree with the opinion (from their daily paper. Something very Kate Allen, Amnesty International’s different. A small group of us set UK director) that the rise represented about coming up with a new kind a ‘grotesque and shocking trend’. of ideas (sic). We lashed them The Look and the Style together in a dummy version of what you are holding now and While the editorial team maintained then took them to show a group its commitment to balance, mixing of real readers in Birmingham. The occasional gravity with the overall response was staggering. They said lightweight tone of the newspaper, they loved it. But did they really they were equally consistent in trying mean it? Remarkably, the more to provide easy reading material. people we asked, the more certain What’s more, it was easy on the we were that the answer was ‘yes’. eye. The fonts (Caecalia for headlines, So, of course the product was tested, Veljovic for body copy) were attractive and naturally the results were favourable. and the point sizes generally larger But as any market researcher will tell you, than for rival newspapers, making the answers to roughly the same question their stories clear and simple to read. will vary at different times. Positive replies The fact that the New Day was only to ‘will you buy it tomorrow?’ will almost published from Monday to Friday Mike Hobbs is a freelance certainly differ from positive responses (because readers generally have journalist and regular to ‘did you buy it yesterday?’ – just as more time to peruse newspapers contributor to MediaMag. His polling responses to ‘how will you vote?’ at length at the weekend) suggests first novel, The Chevalier, has often differ from ‘how did you vote?’. that it was courting the ‘cup of tea’ just been published. market, designed to give its readers a few quick hits, yet no more – at 40 pages, its length would be regarded as The Verdict very short by newspaper standards. On Wednesday 4 May, Trinity Mirror announced that the New Day was to cease publication. Its last edition came out on What Happened Next? Friday 6 May. It had lasted barely two months, but it was clear that the owners, Trinity Mirror, had rapidly lost patience as The big question was whether circulation slumped to around 30,000-40,000 and advertisers the New Day could buck the trend had to be reimbursed because the paper had failed to meet of downward newspaper sales and promised sales targets of 200,000. Writing in the Guardian establish a firm core of new readers. on Thursday 5 May, respected media commentator Roy During the first month of its publication Greenslade laid the main blame on senior management: it failed to reach its target of 200,000; after starting around 150,000, sales Did no-one at the company stop to wonder at the fell to 90,000. Trinity Mirror stuck to unlikelihood of convincing a target audience composed its pricing strategy; the newspaper of people who dislike newspapers to buy a newspaper? cost 25p for two weeks after launch Coupled with a failure to invest in promotion, he argued that the day and later rose to 50p (price project was doomed from the start – and other analysts agreed movements announced in advance), with him. The Times (6 May) quoted Joe Rundle, head of trading allegedly causing a further fall to at ETX Capital: 40,000. This made it more expensive than the i, but put it into roughly the In a world where print is declining there was never a same bracket as the long-standing place for another title that had no real USP. Ill-conceived, tabloids: the Daily Mirror, the Daily badly executed and completely foolish – it’s hard to Express, the Daily Mail and the Sun. fathom what Trinity Mirror was trying to achieve. The plan to attract new readers Extra Breaking News to a new product in a notoriously On 6 July, it was reported that Trinity Mirror will make conservative market was a bold one. cost savings of at least 15 high-salaried staff, including The newspaper was meticulously senior executives and award-winning journalists.

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 8 20/07/2016 17:02 at EMC, © Jenny Grahame at EMC, © Jenny Guardian Reading the

he notion of the ‘global’ is a modern mass media text. Neil Paddison examines regular feature of WJEC’s In the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan some of the ways in which MS4 Exam (Section B: memorably described the world the Guardian is reaching out Industry and Audiences), and as a ‘global village’ as electronic to a global digital audience of OCR’s Critical Perspectives paper. communication seemed to have And whichever course you are already radically shortened distances as print sales decline. studying, the extent to which a media between people. The process of text can be said to have global appeal, globalisation in media industries or even be described as a global text, is has been hastened through the a topic that can be explored with any convergence of technologies, as

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 9 20/07/2016 17:02 communication devices and processes having nearly 9 million ‘average daily have come together. The sales of browsers’, putting it a long way behind printed newspapers have been in steady the market leader MailOnline (14 million) decline since the explosive growth of but way ahead of the Telegraph (4 the internet in the 1990s and modern million). Meanwhile, the print circulation audiences can now follow the news of the Guardian was only 161,000. It is on a range of different platforms and the poor relation in print sales of quality mobile technologies, and via news national dailies, way behind the Daily providers anywhere in the world. Telegraph (472,000). Indeed, it is closer As the newspaper industry adapts to to the recently closed Independent the digital age, the Guardian newspaper which had a circulation of just 54,000. has perhaps a better claim than many In March 2016, MediaWeek reported © Andrew McCallum © Andrew of its competitors to be a truly global Guardian Media Group’s ‘plans to newspaper. The paper’s website is the make the company more efficient, has not made a profit for some time third most read in the world with over reduce costs, and attain new growth and relies on the investments of 120 million monthly unique browsers opportunities.’ In the course of 2015, The Scott Trust to keep it running. and a June 2016 daily average of the Guardian reportedly lost ‘around almost 9 million unique browsers, only £70 million, with slower-than-expected The Global Picture about one third of whom are from digital ad sales failing to offset a Two areas that did not face the the UK. But what does the concept continued slump in revenue from print.’ cutbacks were the Australia and USA of a global newspaper really mean? This led to cutbacks of 20% and shelving branches of the Guardian. One reason of plans for the Midland Goods Shed, a Declining Readership Figures for protecting these investments is former train depot near GMG’s offices that they are the backbone of the The Guardian is very successful online, in King’s Cross, which it had planned Guardian’s bid to provide news for a but is struggling to maintain circulation to use as a public area for community global audience. Over the past two years figures for its print edition. The February gatherings and events. The cutbacks the Guardian has developed its ability 2016 statistics record the Guardian as were needed, as the printed Guardian to deliver 24-hour rolling coverage of major world news events. Stories may start with UK reporters, then, as a recent Guardian article puts it, The US takes over a live blog on major events such as the Paris attacks from the UK at about 6pm-7pm. Then at about at EMC, © Jenny Grahame at EMC, © Jenny midnight, UK time, Australia takes over and the UK picks

Guardian it back up again at 7am. This ability to cover major stories live is shaping the way audiences Reading the use the Guardian on mobile devices:

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 10 20/07/2016 17:02 The Guardian Building Window in London Window Building Guardian The https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian#/media/ 3.0 BY-SA CC

during the Paris attacks, ‘readers corner of the page, with the following caught in the area of the attacks options: ‘UK edition’, ‘US edition’, used the Guardian to follow events ‘Australia edition’, and ‘International.’ as they hid and as a guide to safety.’ According to the Guardian, ‘around the world, more than 120 million unique Guardian Online browsers visit the Guardian every month,’ and the launch of the other ‘editions’ The Guardian’s reporting on the increased this traffic by a further 10%. Paris attacks won praise not only from The Guardian prides itself on readers but from the Society of Editors. providing online news content for free, At their Press Awards for 2015, the and has so far resisted any temptation Guardian was winner of the Website to install a ‘paywall.’ However, it does of the Year. To quote their citation, offer subscription services for those who the winner’s site offers a want to download/read the print format at EMC, © Jenny Grahame at EMC, © Jenny comprehensive news service and online, and it offers a membership boasts consistent innovation. programme, which whilst offering

It is notable for its superb some exclusive content and discounted Guardian live blogging, its long reads, access to events, is effectively a the comment section and, in way of sponsoring the Guardian to

particular, fantastic coverage remain editorially independent. Reading the of the Paris shootings. Whilst the profitability of the printed Guardian remains an issue, its Neil Paddison is a Media teacher, freelance The appeal of Guardian content to writer and cartoonist. global audiences is developed through a website appears to go from strength variety of technologies, and perhaps the to strength. Globally, its future most important is its website. Since their seems assured, at least for now. launch in April 2015, visitors to www.theguardian.com can choose between different versions of the

website by clicking in the top right hand Tony Holkham Holkham Tony Guardian Prospectus, 1821 Prospectus, Guardian Manchester 11

MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 11 20/07/2016 17:02 In the first of two linked articles about the role and representation of women in film and broadcast media, Steph Hendry identifies and celebrates new developments in TV drama which offer more diverse and proactive views. ©2015 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved©2015 CBS Broadcasting, www.image.net

ender issues are always on the media The Bechdel Test (see MM34) is a simple way to debates agenda and they take many ‘test’ the way a film treats women. The test is: forms. Recently, a number of high • Does the film have at least two women in it? profile Hollywood stars have discussed • Do they talk to each other? the unequal pay received by male and female • Do they talk to each other about actors, the ageism faced by women artists, and anything other than a man? Hollywood’s preference for a certain type of body A recent study indicates that many films shape/appearance which pressurises females to still fail to pass the test. Between 2010 and lose weight or to undertake cosmetic surgery to 2014 Smith et al analysed 120 contemporary conform. These debates reflect the wider films; 31% of characters were female and contextual issues about attitudes to women in only 23% of films had female protagonists. society and the conscious and unconscious But whilst film still struggles with its sexism that still exists. Jennifer Lawrence has representations of women, television seems to shared her anger on discovering how much less be doing a lot better. Many programmes are of she was paid than her male peers, blaming the course focused on male protagonists but many way she negotiated with studios: ‘I don’t think I’m others offer complex roles for women that easily the only woman with this issue... could there still pass the Bechdel Test. Contemporary television be a lingering habit of trying to express our drama provides many roles that do not rely opinions in a certain way that doesn’t ‘offend’ or on men for their definition, where women are ‘scare’ men?’ has spoken about the active. self-determined, and defined by qualities lack of women-centred narratives in film: ‘the other than looks or sexuality. Netflix productions statistics are remarkable how many roles there are Jessica Jones, Orange is the New Black and The for men compared to women’. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt have created When evaluating the representation of women, interesting female characters, as has Showtime’s

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 12 20/07/2016 17:02 The Good Wife

Penny Dreadful, ABC’s Agent Carter and HBO’s Girls. female boss, Diane, engages in the cut-throat In the UK, soaps have a long history of creating politics of the boardroom, where she plots to interesting and complex female characters; remove board members, and deals with power BBC crime dramas such as Luther, Line of Duty, grabs that threaten her position. Diane is a and Happy Valley also offer female villains respected multilingual lawyer who is offered the who are complex and contradictory, as well as chance to become a judge. Perhaps the most strong female leads, defined equally by their unconventional female character is Kalinda, the professional and domestic roles; C4’s Humans law firm’s private detective who proves herself features a number of strong and active females. to be intelligent, cunning and unafraid to use So let’s celebrate four notable examples violence when necessary. Kalinda’s sexuality of TV dramas which challenge the is totally fluid; once married to a man, she has conventions with strong self-determining slept with Alicia’s husband and her business roles for women, and narratives which partner and has also had many female lovers. might actually pass the Bechdel Test. Although The Good Wife has many interesting male characters, its focus is on women who are The Good Wife (CBS/C4: 2009- defined by their accomplishments and strengths. present) Salem (WGN/iTunes: 2014-present) The Good Wife is now in its seventh and final season. Alicia Florrick is a politician’s wife having Set in the 1690s, Salem deals with a period to return to work after her philandering husband of absolute patriarchy in all areas of life, when has been imprisoned for paying for prostitutes male power was reinforced by the institution with public money. She is first seen playing the of organised religion. Salem is notorious as role of ‘the good wife’ literally and metaphorically the location of witch trials where women were standing by her man at a press conference. accused of consorting with the devil; in what Humiliated, she becomes a junior attorney and is now perceived as a classic case of mass eventually leaves the marital home to live alone hysteria, women who were found guilty were with her two teenage children. Initially Alicia executed, but the only way to prove innocence was arguably defined by her domestic roles of was to accuse someone else of witchcraft. Many wife and mother; as the show progresses she commentators see the persecution of ‘witches’ shows that despite domestic responsibilities she as evidence of an ingrained cultural misogyny. is highly skilled and able to be both a respected A drama which uses the Salem witch trials as its lawyer and mother to her children. Alicia’s setting and takes the position that the women were ‘guilty’ of the witchcraft accusations against them could have presented them either as victims or as villains. Instead it has created a range of female characters; some are evil, others virtuous; some are victims, others victimised; some are loyal and others treacherous. All these women are shown responding to the harsh and unequal patriarchal world they find themselves in; they choose to behave in active – and proactive – ways. Their society denies the women any personal or social power, so they exploit witchcraft to create influence and to have some control over their own destiny. For example, the main protagonist (antagonist?) Mary Sibley finds

Happy Valley, © Red Production Company/BBC, Company/BBC, © Red Production Valley, Happy with permission herself alone and powerless, so she uses magic to

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 13 20/07/2016 17:02 attract, and then subdue, her husband – one of the town elders. Her spell puts him in a catatonic state, and so she speaks for him and becomes one of the most powerful people in her community. UnREAL (Lifetime: 2015- present) UnREAL is set behind the scenes on a US television reality show called ‘Everlasting’. The show is a ‘dating’ reality show (like The Bachelor), where a large number of women compete with one another to be chosen by a wealthy, good looking man (Adam). Female characters dominate the show on both sides of the camera. Contestants initially appear vain and competitive, but as the show progresses they are shown to have complex motivations for participating. The show-runner and most of the producers are

women; the executive producer, Quinn King, is Inc. All Rights Reserved ©2015 CBS Broadcasting, Wife, Good The www.image.net

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 14 20/07/2016 17:02 Happy Valley

ruthless and works hard and unsentimentally and professions. All these women have lives to get the footage that will make her show an that offer many challenges. Whilst some are audience hit. With the help of Rachel, a troubled defined by their relationships to men, they are junior producer, she taps into the contestants’ depicted as varied and complex characters. weaknesses and manipulates them to create Television programmes, especially long-form conflict and drama. Quinn and Rachel exploit fictions, have more time and space to develop the death of one contestant’s father and the fact complex characters and create a variety of that another has escaped a violently abusive settings and situations with which characters husband. They manipulate characters with can engage. These shows represent just a few eating disorders and prey on racial conflicts – examples of contemporary programming that manipulations which have serious consequences can easily pass the Bechdel test. What they for the contestants. At times the women in demonstrate is that stories about women can be UnREAL are able to exert power but they are as exciting and engaging as stories about men. all in some way having to deal with their own And these dramas can and do also engage men personal problems, or general inequalities in – they could not be successful if only women their domestic and professional roles. The women watched them. They demonstrate that women are contestants compete against one another for so much more than their domestic roles or their Adam’s attention, while the women behind the relationships with men; and through TV drama, scenes are subject to the politics of the male- their stories are at last being shared on screen. dominated TV industry, including demands from the network to make sure the programme is a Steph Hendry is a Media lecturer at Runshaw College success, whilst being treated as sex objects or and a freelance writer. Follow her on @ seeing their input belittled (sometimes both albionmill at the same time). Women are not treated kindly in UnREAL – it is their imperfections and their struggles which drive the story along. from the archive:

Happy Valley, © Red Production Company/BBC, Company/BBC, © Red Production Valley, Happy with permission Happy Valley (BBC 2015- present) The Changing Representation of Women, MM34 This highly successful BBC cop drama focuses on a female police sergeant, Cath Cawood, Tarantino's Women, MM20 dealing with local crime in a small West Yorkshire What Lies Beneath? Lund town. She lives with her grandson and her and Salander, MM41 sister, a recovering alcoholic; Cath herself is still grieving the loss of her daughter who committed suicide after giving birth to a son conceived through rape. Cath is respected by her colleagues at the police station and has a strong physical presence when ‘on the job’. She is strong, yet compassionate, fiercely protective of her family, and defends anyone who is threatened or vulnerable. In Series 1 she attempts to rescue a woman who has been abducted but, in a dramatic turn of events, is badly beaten by the kidnapper; in a further subversion of gender roles (and narrative expectations), she is saved by the kidnap victim. Happy Valley depicts a range of women of different ages

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 15 20/07/2016 17:02 Fat Actress Melissa McCarthy and ‘the last f**k-able day’

In a world where J-Law is deemed plus-sized, what hope for ‘real’ women and their representation in Hollywood cinema? Jonathan Nunns considers the significance of the rise and popularity of Melissa McCarthy. © ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy Stock Photo Stock Inc./Alamy Press, © ZUMA

Melissa McCarthy in (© Columbia Pictures/ Entertainment Pictures/ZUMAPRESS.com, 2016) with Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 16 20/07/2016 17:02 n Hollywood, Jennifer Lawrence is considered In every actress’s life, the media decides ‘plus-sized’ or to put it more bluntly, fat. Hard when you finally reach the point that to believe? Back on planet earth, she might be you’re not believably f**k-able anymore. described as: talented? Empowered? Odds on This is the point where female careers usually for an Oscar? All of those things probably – but plus- stall, when overwhelmingly male movie execs sized? Can we mean the same Jennifer Lawrence, decide an actress is no longer sexy enough the one in The Hunger Games franchise? Apparently to be the female lead (unsurprisingly there is so; but that is how it is for actresses in Hollywood. no equivalent cut-off date for male actors). For a Hollywood actress, acceptability (and thus This point, strangely enough, coincides with employability) usually means being and staying the onset of middle age and can be identified waif-thin and being (or looking) under forty. Hence, when actresses get offered roles where they under the extreme conditions of Hollywood, the are partnered with very much older male young and regular-sized Lawrence becomes a ‘plus- stars (hello Jack Nicholson!), roles as mothers/ sized role model’. No wonder they talk about being grandmothers to the leads – or no roles at all. lost in showbiz! Well-done movie execs for such Such was the fate of , female revolutionary casting! Nice to know that’s fixed! With lead to Tom Hanks’ in Punchline (1988) but six such a wide range of female role models in place, years later, his mother in Forrest Gump (1994). we can get on with feeling good about ourselves, Similarly, The Dark Knight’s Maggie Gyllenhaal and stop with all the nonsense about Hollywood was recently deemed too old to play opposite a being prejudiced and full of double standards. Not. male star almost twenty years her senior. Worse Let's back-track for a moment. This article was has befallen others. What connects Jessica partly inspired by the short-lived hybrid reality Lang, Kathleen Turner, Sharon Stone, Halle show/sitcom Fat Actress (2005). This was a vehicle Berry, Michelle Pfeiffer and even the luminous for the once-slim Kirstie Alley, star of hit sitcom Julia Roberts? All their careers dropped off (1982-93). Having gained weight in real a cliff once they turned forty. This situation life, she would now play a ‘plus-sized’ version of has long held sway. ’s proto- herself, shining a light on the bigotry suffered Bond spy thriller North by Northwest (1959) by larger and/or older women in tinsel-town. starred an aging Cary Grant as the protagonist However, the show-runners seemed more intent Roger Thornhill, whose mother was played on humiliating the postmodern/semi-fictionalised by an actress exactly the same age as him. Alley, in her increasingly extreme attempts to lose There have been exceptions: from America, weight. Hence episodes focussed on Alley getting and , from the explosive diarrhoea from a slimming potion, UK Judi Dench and , for example. or swallowing tape-worm eggs in the search However, these actresses were originally lauded for the holy grail of thinness. Missing its target primarily for the power of their acting; stars and doing no service to star or audience, it was known mostly for their looks, such as the rom- unsurprising when Fat Actress was swiftly cancelled. com queens, are usually those whose careers A more incisive approach came in 2015 from Kirsty Alley in Fat Actress (2005) regular, Amy Schumer, whose show Inside Amy Schumer (Comedy Central/2013-present/USA) featured a Twitter-storm of a sketch, both controversial and acute in its skewering of Hollywood sexism. Out running, Schumer stumbles across a picnic featuring three of her heroes: recent Oscar winner Patricia Arquette, fellow Saturday Night Live star and Veep’s Julia Dreyfuss. As Dreyfus explains, they are there to celebrate her ‘last f**k-able day’: © AF archive/Alamy Stock Photo Stock © AF archive/Alamy

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 17 20/07/2016 17:02 are derailed when middle age sets in. Even an Oscar nomination seems unable to stop the process; having turned 50, Marisa Tomaei, nominated as the (intentionally sexy) female lead in The Wrestler (2008), is now offered the very unsexy dead-end role of Peter Parker’s Aunt May, in the next Spiderman film. While middle-aged spread did little to slow down Jack Nicholson or Russell Crowe, in a Hollywood obsessed with women’s age and size, being too old and/or too big is enough to stall

your career. Remember Jennifer Lawrence has Ltd/Alamy Press © Pictorial Photo Stock actual flesh, is foolhardy enough to admit having whose careers were defined, at least in part, by Melissa McCarthy in occasionally eaten things, and thus becomes the innate ‘hilarity’ of their fatness. However, this Bridesmaids (Universal a plus-sized role model. Having allowed her a is not quite the case with McCarthy. Off-screen, Studios fi lm, 2011) career, Hollywood seems ready to give itself a with Rose Byrne she has stood up against the term ‘plus-sized’ as pat on the back and consider the issue closed. ghettoising the many size 14+ women who are How then to explain the rise of Melissa McCarthy, considered large by the fashion industry and unlike Lawrence a genuine, ‘Fat Actress’? therefore beyond the norm. She claims clothes Melissa McCarthy: Sign of Changing should be clothes, not a means to stigmatise, and has followed this up with her own fashion Times or the Exception that Proves line, where the term ‘plus’ does not exist. the Rule? McCarthy and Feig’s newest collaboration is McCarthy is ‘plus-sized’ and at 45 well past the all-female re-boot of Ghostbusters (2016), the point where her career might have been opening the door to a big female-led franchise, expected to fail. Instead the opposite seems which sounds positive. However, McCarthy is to apply. Her break-out role was in Paul Feig’s only one actress, and her career might not have Bridesmaids (2011), an ensemble comedy in risen so sharply were it not for her collaboration which her scene-stealing role had the highest with Feig: the male director/female muse profile. The buddy comedy, The Heat (2013) partnership is a filmmaking cliché. Recent followed, and her success was consolidated press coverage has focused on McCarthy’s with her first solo lead in Spy (2015, another dramatic weight loss; while she may have Feig collaboration. Here she is dispatched to chosen to diet for perfectly understandable Europe dressed as a frump, with spy gadgets health reasons, it would be shameful if she has disguised as laxatives and haemorrhoid cream; had to shrink purely for her career to grow. unusually mileage is made both from her age, Currently McCarthy is the Hollywood but also from the genre’s conventional sexism. exception, not the rule. Will she succeed in Jude Law plays second fiddle as a Bond-like hero, a career confined only to comedy? Can she gorgeous but dumb, whose success is due only become more than a genre star? Is she really to laser sharp real–time instructions fed down a sign of changing times? And will male stars his earpiece by McCarthy, his CIA handler. His have to remain forever young and thin to avoid disappearance propels her into the field, where meeting their own ‘Last F**k-able Day’? Or fun is also had at the expense of Jason Statham’s will the dream factory finally begin to feature bone-headed bruiser, her other female-gaze aspirational role models who actually look a eye-candy and eventual sexual conquest. little more like the audiences that watch them? McCarthy is interesting in the film. Originally frumpy, she adopts the role of super-spy, starting Jonathan Nunns is Head of Media Studies at Collyer’s to dress and act the part. Despite some of Feig’s College and moderates for a major awarding body. trademark ‘gross-out’ moments, the fight scenes with McCarthy are played for genuine thrills, making her a credible action protagonist. It would be easy to read too much into from the archive: McCarthy’s success. Comedy has a tradition of (Not so) Pretty in Pink, MM42 ‘hilarious’ fat people stretching back to silent cinema’s Fatty Arbuckle and Oliver Hardy. More recently Rosanne Barr and Rosy O’Donnell have made careers as ‘plus-sized’ comedians – all stars

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 18 20/07/2016 17:02 Mark Ramey explores the perennial appeal of the gangster genre, and argues that it offers deeply philosophical insights into the human condition. Al Pacino in The Godfather Part II 1972 directed by

© ScreenProd/Photononstop/ Photo Stock Alamy Francis Ford Coppola hat’s the big deal about bad entrepreneurs playing rough at the very Gangsters in History guys – and how have they come edges of the capitalist system. There to form the nucleus of a whole may be some truth in both these views, The American gangster genre has a gangster genre? Tony Montana, but I wish to argue that the gangster long history, starting back in the early the cocaine-dealing hoodlum in the genre is also deeply philosophical – 1930s when Warner Brothers produced a remake of the 1930’s classic Scarface as much a depiction of the human classic triptych of talkies that cemented (1983), has the following answer for us: condition as it is a form of escapism. the iconography, representations and Crime genre films, whether featuring genre conventions in the minds of You don’t have the guts to daring robberies, or detective mysteries audiences and producers: Public Enemy be what you wanna be? You or buddy cop dramas, are a staple of (1931), Little Caesar (1931) and Scarface need people like me. You need most national film industries because of (1932). From these genre-defining texts people like me so you can their in-built dramatic conflict, enigmatic the cycle expanded throughout the point your fuckin’ fingers and narratives, and high-resolution endings. 1930s, its repertoire including psychotic say, ‘That’s the bad guy.’ But it is the Gangster genre that attracts mobster protagonists, gold-digging So are they our alter egos – the the greatest fan following – google girlfriends (the moll), corrupt cops, people we secretly want to be but Scarface or to see the level sycophantic underlings, shoot outs, car daren’t because society will shun of official and unofficial merchandising chases and brutal murders. Immigrant- us? And is the gangster merely a that these texts alone generate. focussed rags-to-riches stories (usually fantasy figure? Karen, the wife of the In the UK we have our own tradition of Irish or Italian) were harnessed to create mobster protagonist Henry Hill in mob movies seen most recently in Tom precious wish-fulfilment for Depression- Goodfellas (1990), says otherwise: Hardy’s Legend (2015) where he plays strapped working class audiences; fearful both Kray twins (London mobsters of middle class sensibilities were also After a while, it got to be all satisfied with the protagonist’s inevitable normal. None of it seemed like the 60s). The Japanese have the Yakuza and the Chinese the Triads, but it is the fall from grace in a hail of bullets. crime. It was more like Henry The Second World War saw the rise was enterprising, and that he Italian-American-based Mafia that defines the identity of cinematic mobsters, in of G-Men, or FBI movies, where the and the guys were making a focus moved onto the law-enforcers as few bucks hustling, while all the no small part due to the phenomenal success of The Godfather (1972): one of heroes. Post-war came the ‘Syndicate’ other guys were sitting on their films – representations of crime arses, waiting for handouts. the first auteur-produced blockbusters of the New Hollywood era, that showed organisations run like multi-national Gangsters then are either our alter egos how from base material artistic and businesses. However, the award winning allowing us to play outlaws, or maverick commercial gold could be forged. mega-hit, The Godfather (1972), brought

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 19 20/07/2016 17:02 the genre back into the mainstream United States. To be a gangster was to where it has remained ever since. own the world.’ In Scorsese’s nostalgic The late 1960s saw the dismantlement recreation of 1950s Little Italy in New of the prescriptive censorship of the Hays York (where he grew up) we witness Code, and so the realism and spectacle cinematic myth-making in full swing of crime films were able to explore more as we meet our first gangsters, suited authentic representations of violence, and booted, stepping in slow motion, profanity and sex. The stage was set for like gods, from their shining Cadillacs. arguably the greatest gangster film ever So in Goodfellas it is individualism made, and certainly ’s that separates us from the herd; and finest work to date: Goodfellas. being a wild maverick is as much an existential battle against mind-numbing Goodfellas conformism and mediocrity as it is carefree escapism. But the individualism This film takes a dramatically revisionist represented here does not extend approach in opening up the genre to to gender or sexual identity. Men are focus on the underlings or crew of a local depicted as sexually amoral, whilst New York mafia gangster. The Godfather women are conceived as homemakers or had carried the tradition of focusing bimbos. Homosexuality or female sexual on the apex of the gangster hierarchy pleasure is never discussed. This ultra- to its logical conclusion through an conservative ideology is challenged epic dynastic soap with mansions by Karen Hill (Henry’s wife); but at the and a lavish, almost regal, lifestyle. end of the day she has to follow her However, from the 1970s onwards the man into the living death of suburbia FBI began to prosecute a number of or die herself at the hands of the mob. gang lords based on evidence given by Goodfellas is superbly made underlings (‘goodfellas’) in exchange for with some astounding trademark immunity from prosecution and a new tracking shots, a fine use of music to identity under the Witness Protection contextualise the 1950s, 60s and 70s, Scheme. Henry Hill (the film’s main and some stunning performances protagonist) is one such character. from Joe Pesci (Oscar winner for Best Hill’s true story was written into a Supporting Actor in 1991) and Robert bestseller called Wiseguy by Nicholas De Niro. The violence is graphic, Pileggi (1986), and Scorsese optioned the murders sadistic, the murderers the film rights as well as recruiting psychotic and the swearing count goes Hill as a consultant on the shoot. through the roof – 300 uses of the We witness Hill’s rise and fall divorced F-word alone. Intriguingly too, any nods from the critique of capitalism that is to the social realist roots of the genre clearly present in the Scarface. are shattered when Henry Hill breaks Goodfellas’ apolitical stance is not the 4th wall towards the end of the Joe Pesci & Ray surprising in the context of Scorsese’s film (according to Scorsese a romantic Liotta Goodfellas critically toothless Wolf of Wall Street (1990) homage to the iconoclasm of gangsters). (2013) and his reverential The Aviator However, it is the final shot of the film (2004); both are studies of a rampant and that is most striking. Here we see Joe avaricious capitalism that is celebrated Pesci (back from the grave) shooting rather than denigrated. Individualism at the camera, at us the audience, however is admired in Goodfellas, and in a specific homage to one of the is given sharp contrast in the final scene first narrative films ever shot, Edwin where Henry Hill, now relocated and with The gangster S. Porter’s, The Great Train Robbery a new identity, is shown collecting his (1903). The implication is clear: we are newspaper from the porch of his house: genre is deeply fascinated by cinematic death and as the camera cranes up and away it philosophical appalled by it in equal measure; and reveals him now lost in a suburban sea of Goodfellas is part of a cinematic tradition monotonous conformity – ‘I’m an average – as much a that deals with that fascination and nobody,’ he intones in voice over, ‘Get to depiction of the horror. In Sight and Sound (February live the rest of my life like a schnook.’ 2016) Pamela Hutchinson agrees: The film starts with an equally famous human condition voice over: ‘To me [being a gangster] With these gunshots Goodfellas as it is a form was better than being President of the acknowledges its place in of escapism.

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 20 20/07/2016 17:02 © AF archive/Alamy Stock Photo Stock © AF archive/Alamy

the history of the cinema’s exemplifies the existential struggle of glamorisation of violence. the lone man making meaning in a Gangsters are meaningless world, whilst continually Yes, cinema does glamorise but either our alter confronted with the inevitability of his it also reaches out – we are active own death. Pesci’s gunshot is a reminder egos allowing us spectators of the cinematic image, that we all live on the precipice. not just passive audiences consuming to play outlaws, filmed spectacle like tubs of popcorn. or maverick We fear and admire gangsters because Mark Ramey teaches Film and Media they hold the power of life and death in Studies at Richard Collyer’s College, entrepreneurs their hands. Hill’s imprisonment in ‘our Horsham, West Sussex. playing rough at world’ is a gaol sentence in a stultifying suburban eternity. Pesci’s well-aimed the very edges bullet is then a wake-up call to us all from the archive: of the capitalist to act and live before it’s all too late. The Public Enemy: a Med4 Individualism (not family) is the only system. Text in Context, MM14 answer: the song that concludes the film is a punk parody of Sinatra’s iconic Med4, a Text in Context: anthem to the individual, ‘My Way’. In Reservoir Dogs, MM15 such a reading the gangster perhaps

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 21 20/07/2016 17:02 Representation of masculinity in The Night Manager

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 22 20/07/2016 17:02 nless you were living under a rock The most obvious place to begin would for the early part of 2016, it’s a be with Tom Hiddleston’s character, safe bet that you’ll have Jonathan Pine. At the outset, Pine is the encountered some of the pinnacle of unflappability; the man who publicity, discussion or spoilers for the can get his guests anything, or anyone, BBC’s The Night Manager. Pure they desire. Sharp suited and cool as a The Night Manager was watercooler television, at a reported cucumber, he is fazed by nothing, until a huge success for BBC three million pounds an episode to he encounters the girlfriend of one of Drama, fusing together make, this was a big budget, lavishly Cairo’s most notorious gangsters, who motifs from the worlds cast and beautifully shot production, passes him sensitive information about with some of the hottest names in an upcoming arms deal. Pine goes to of both spy and gangster drama at the helm. Based on a novel by the British Ambassador (a nice cameo genres. Fay Jessop explores spy thriller master John Le Carré, its from Russell Tovey) in an attempt to the versions of masculinity storyline revolves around former soldier shut this down, only to find that the it offers, and its links to Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston), now wheels of diplomacy turn haphazardly, class, power and sexuality. serving the needs of the rich and if at all. Pine, also, inevitably, falls for the feckless as the titular attendant of a gangster’s girl, whose violent death is posh hotel in central Cairo. Pine’s the emotional catalyst he needs to be journey from nondescript hospitality recruited by MI6 to infiltrate Richard yes-man to fully fledged arms dealer, Roper’s organisation and take him working undercover for MI6 on the down. In Hiddleston’s own words, Pine inside of Richard ‘the worst man in the becomes, at this point, ‘an immaculate world’ Roper’s (Hugh Laurie) arms performer – but he’s on fire on the inside.’ trading organisation takes the viewer This can be said also of the tone of on a rollercoaster from Egypt to Hiddleston’s own performance; it is one Switzerland to Devon, Mallorca, and of passionate restraint. There follows a then full circle back to Cairo as Pine series of unpleasant events to establish immerses himself into the murky world Pine’s back story, before he ends up in of weapons of mass destruction, the inner circle of Roper’s organisation. murder and oh-so- commercialised death. Roper The Bad, Bad Boys: Pine In contrast to Pine, Richard Roper, arms dealer extraordinaire, comes complete From the outset, the viewer is treated with his own duo of minders, ‘Tabby’ to a sumptuous, fully realised world and ‘Frisky’, right hand man Corky (Tom of espionage, driven by powerful and Hollander), business partner Sandy charismatic men. It is the presentation (Adrian Petrie) and trophy girlfriend Jed of these males that is one of the most (Elizabeth Debicki). Roper is, by his own intriguing aspects of the production. confession, a self-made man, revelling Des Willie, BBC, The Ink Factory and AMC. InkThe Factory BBC, Willie, Des Des Willie, BBC, The Ink Factory and AMC. InkThe Factory BBC, Willie, Des

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 23 20/07/2016 17:02 in the fruits of his ill-gotten gains. And Sexual jealousy, concern for his own yet, in stark contrast to his wealth and position or plain malice could all be power, he has a vulnerability: a belief in Corky’s prime motivation for such his own total invulnerability. Whether treatment of a young pretender, but this belief extends into blindness as his downfall as The Night Manager far as his relationship with Pine is progresses is positively Shakespearean. concerned is hugely debatable. Some In one particularly memorable scene, set have suggested this develops into a in a high-end seafood restaurant, poor father-son relationship as Pine infiltrates old Corky, drunk and running off at the himself more deeply into Roper’s world, mouth, begins by toasting ‘the lovers’ (a and, indeed, this dynamic is clearly not-so-veiled reference to the growing stated by Roper himself when he refers attraction between Pine and Jed), and to Pine as ‘the young ’ in episode ends by groping Pine in a grotesque 5, an echo of Tabby’s earlier reference expression of his own frustrations. to Roper’s son Danny as ‘the princeling’. Jed puts it more succinctly in episode The Bangs 4: 'Everyone’s attracted to you.' Corky, by virtue of his sexuality, and Whether it’s bromance or some kind his expression of that sexuality, is the of twisted retelling of the Oedipal myth, outsider in the group, even more than though, one thing’s for sure: Pine is Pine. His flamboyance is strangely irresistible. Even at the end of the series, at odds with his employer Roper’s when Roper throws Pine into a chair in an tangibly masculine business of arms- empty warehouse, in a rather pertinent trading where, it could be argued, echo of Casino Royale’s infamous torture homosexuality falls into the ‘don’t ask, scene (one of several 007 references don’t tell’ category. There are plenty of in The Night Manager), when it’s all out textual examples of the use of uber- in the open and Roper acknowledges phallic weaponry (Pine seems to relish Pine’s betrayal, Roper’s almost wistful the ‘fireworks display’ of surface-to-air ‘I got you so wrong’ is genuinely missiles, anti-aircraft guns and the like ambiguous. Did Roper know all along in episode 5). But this is, on the surface, he’d been betrayed, or was he willing a straight man’s world, and Corky’s to play along because he believed he preferences are frowned upon by many was untouchable? His almost admiring in Roper’s organisation, including Roper ‘you little beauty’ when it all, literally, himself, who asks one of his minders explodes in his face is equally enigmatic. to escort Corky’s ‘ of Dorothy’ Corky from his premises in episode 3. It’s no surprise, therefore, that Corky If Roper and Pine’s relationship is meets his end violently. Deviation one built on some form of respect from the norm must be punished, and admiration, Corky, Roper’s right and Corky pays the ultimate price, hand man and sometime wit at table at the hand of the man he’s been is another matter entirely. Corky is the lusting after throughout; the man Jack Russell of the pack; tenacious, who has replaced him in Richard bright and snappy, he knows Pine’s a Roper’s affections. Of course, given wrong-un from the outset. Corky’s lines the tensions and attractions between are arguably the best ones; delivered nearly all of the characters throughout with waspish relish in Hollander’s The Night Manager, Roper’s reaction trademark deadpan style. At one point, to Corky’s ‘friends’ may just be a as Pine lies prostrate in bed, the victim distraction from his own churning and of a rather overly enthusiastic beating uncertain emotions about Pine. In the at the hands of his own side, Corky, final episode, Roper wistfully hints at suspicious of the sudden entrance this emotional ambiguity: ‘He was a of Pine into Roper’s fold, remarks: good man, Corks. Now he’s lying in a ditch in Turkey because of you.’ I will hood you, and hang you up by those lovely ankles until the truth falls out of you by gravity.

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 24 20/07/2016 17:02 The Bomb – Jed leads. It recently emerged in the media, after the series had aired, that all three Even Jed’s role, part love interest, actors were graduates of The Dragon part plot device, acts as a conduit for School, an independent prep school male conflict. Roper’s ‘property’, Pine’s in Oxford well known for nurturing temptation and Corky’s friend, she sets the three men at odds from the moment the kind [of actor] that gets she’s introduced. One of the joys of offered a lead role in a top- watching this adaptation is the reaction notch BBC spy drama. Men of the men to this incredibly attractive who are white, plummy toned, woman. Despite their preoccupations silver-tongued, wear a suit with with one another, Jed introduces an aplomb, do irony with their element of lust for all three; Roper enjoys eyebrows, seriousness with their the acquisition, Pine is fatally drawn to smiles, and can say the word A sumptuous, fully her, as evidenced by their tortured kiss ‘damn’ with complete integrity. realised world of in episode 4, and Corky feels the threat The Guardian of Pine’s growing closeness to her as espionage, driven she simultaneously distances herself Perhaps, after pulses have slowed, by powerful and from him; the loss of an ally, perhaps? and adrenaline levels have dropped, The camera is often the voyeur when it it might be worth considering the charismatic men, it focuses on Debicki, especially when she is current dominance of a certain class is the presentation semi clothed or naked, but it’s telling that of male at the top of the BBC’s talent Hiddleston flashes as much flesh, and tree, and whether, as the success of of these males even more during their frenzied coupling The Night Manager suggests, we’re that is one of the against the wall of the hotel room. A nod quite willing as an audience to to the female audience perhaps, or the continue to be seduced by them. most intriguing recognition that the sensuality of the aspects of the story relies as much on the physicality Fay Jessop is an English and Media teacher of the men as it does the women. at Backwell School in Bristol. production. In conclusion, The Night Manager is as seductive to watch as the three male

25 Des Willie, BBC, The Ink Factory and AMC. InkThe Factory BBC, Willie, Des

MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 25 20/07/2016 17:02 And your specialist subject is...

26 Public domain Public

MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 26 20/07/2016 17:02 small crew, an unchanging set and largely unpaid Media teacher Austin McHale contestants. They can be recorded in batches reflects on the appeal of quiz with the same studio audience. Ratings may not shows, and his own experiences be huge, but they are consistent (Mastermind of sitting in that big black chair. hovers round the 1.5 million mark). The audience is classically niche; loyal and notably interactive, whether that involves screaming henever I’ve taught print answers at the screen or playing online. media, my students and I In terms of Uses and Gratifications theory, quiz have agreed that a good shows satisfy many audience needs. Like sporting magazine needs a quiz to events, they offer the immediacy and excitement hook its audience. MediaMagazine, a great of an unrehearsed, unwritten ending embedded magazine, has never had one. So here are within a familiar ritual, often involving dramatic 10 quick-fire questions, preferably to be lighting, an omniscient host and the unchanging answered whilst sitting in a big black chair, structure of time-limited rounds. Audiences may illuminated by a blinding beam of light... identify with particular contestants or study them voyeuristically as they cope (or melt) under pressure. Quiz shows often provide ‘water cooler 1. In which year did Mastermind start? moments’ when viewers discuss the previous 2. Who was its first presenter? night’s questions at work or school the next day, arguably promoting social cohesion. Finally, and 3. How much time is allowed for very relevantly to the BBC with its mission to Round One – specialist subject? inform as well as entertain, audiences may at least 4. How much time is allowed for Round feel more educated by the end of the show, even Two – general knowledge? if they’ve already forgotten most of the answers. 5. What is its most famous catchphrase? A Quiz Show Case Study: 6. What is the prize for the eventual Mastermind Mastermind champion? Mastermind in particular fits the BBC Public 7. Between which years did Service Broadcasting remit. It cultivates Mastermind take a break on TV? an austere, intellectual air, with little ice- 8. What is the lowest ever score breaking humour; the unspoken assumption on the programme? is that the audience is here to learn rather than to be entertained. The title sequence 9. What is the highest ever score? illustrates this perfectly. Ominous drumbeats 10. Why was Mastermind once introduce portentous brass as the theme music accused of blasphemy? (‘Approaching Menace’ by Neil Richardson) grips the audience. The camera zooms in to the famous black chair, seen in extreme close- The discriminating reader (yes, that’s you!) up from multiple dizzying angles, leather and will have noticed a theme connecting these metal gleaming aggressively. The contestants questions. You may also be wondering why are first seen passively in long shot, emphasising quiz shows in general, and Mastermind in their powerlessness, and then in intrusive particular, are worth spending this much close-up as announces them time on. I would argue that there are very in sepulchral tones. Who would willingly solid Media Studies reasons to study them. submit themselves to such an ordeal? Why Study Quiz Shows? That would be me, as you may already have guessed. Sadly to some, I’ve been mildly obsessed Like soaps and sitcoms, quiz shows are by the show since it started (see Q1) under its generically specific to TV. Despite their small- previous presenter (Q2). A foolish New Year’s screen form, they have been turned into Resolution in 2015 meant I applied online, heard excellent films on at least two occasions (Quiz nothing for months, and was then summoned Show, Robert Redford 1994, and Starter for to an audition at BBC Broadcasting House. I 10, Tom Vaughan 2006). Every UK terrestrial was asked 20 very random questions, again channel, and most satellite outlets, offer quiz heard nothing for months and forgot about it. shows as an essential part of their menu. Why? Suddenly I was told I was on, and within weeks Institutionally, quiz shows are very attractive was in the green room at Media City, Salford, propositions. They are cheap to make, with a Manchester, nibbling nervously at (very tasty)

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2 8 2 0 / 0 7 / 2 0 1

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1 7 : 0 2 sandwiches and wondering whether I’d made Some Insights a terrible mistake. Two specialist subject choices, and Leonard Cohen, had been vetoed A couple of final observations, one practical and because they’d been on within the last two years. one conceptual. One of my fellow contenders, A third, the ‘Last of the Vikings’, Harald Hardraada, a distressingly pleasant gentleman, confided in was refused on the rather surprising grounds that it me after the show that he wasn’t particularly was too obscure. So I was left with my final choice, interested in his specialist subject, Manned Apollo Queen’s Park Rangers FC. I was rather anxious Moon Landings, but chose it because ‘there about this as I wasn’t sure if I could cope with weren’t many of them’. The contestant with the the social disgrace of scoring poorly on a subject lowest score, in contrast, chose an author who’d so close to my heart, the unfashionable club I’d written 30 books. The conclusion is obvious. grown up with in Shepherd’s Bush, West London. Secondly, I’d like to contribute briefly to the Before I knew it, I was being miked up as an ‘dumbing-down’ debate. Mastermind cultivates unfortunate make-up person attempted to an elitist status, convert my deathly pallor into a TV-friendly hue. and some have I wore a sombre brown shirt, as striped, blue seen specialist and black tops (i.e. virtually my entire wardrobe) subjects like mine, AUSTIN McHALE were forbidden by the BBC dress code. Along a neighbourhood with the other three contenders, I walked across football club, the studio floor in front of the audience, hoping I rather than, say, looked gladiatorial rather than glum. A warm-up Rimsky-Korsakov TEACHER or the Amazonian comedian relaxed the audience whilst I looked QUEENS PARK RANGERS unsmilingly on. I was thinking of Bill Wright, the Tree Frog, as original Mastermind producer, who had been a lowering the tone. 1966 ǡ DATE Prisoner of War in Nazi Germany. He had been Unsurprisingly, interrogated by the Gestapo, and had borrowed I disagree. the black chair and the peremptory ‘name, The separation between High and Low rank and number’, subtly changing it to ‘name, Culture implied by this criticism is in my view occupation and specialist subject’. Thanks, Bill. completely artificial and laden with specious ‘Dead Man Walking’, I thought, as I was called to value judgments. In the words of the poet TS the chair for Round One. My mood was not helped Eliot, a High Culture icon if ever there was one: by my predecessor having got every question the term culture... includes all the right. Never mind, the chair was surprisingly characteristic activities and interests of comfortable and the lighting, so terrifying on a people: Derby Day, The Cup Final, Dog screen, was actually quite soothing, especially Races, Darts, Joey Essex, Death Metal... given that it removed the distraction of the studio audience, now swathed in darkness. The intrusive OK, I made up the last two, but you get the camera was invisible. Even John Humphrys, picture – or should I say, the image, as this is Radio 4’s attack dog, was courtesy personified also a defence of Media Studies as a discipline. – the Dispatcher to my Hero, in Propp’s terms. So, where to next for an ex-Mastermind I had two rules: don’t pass; and don’t mentally contender? All I can say is that re-run a wrong answer instead of listening to the speculation is Pointless. next question. I managed the first, but not quite the second (particularly when I made a mistake Austin McHale, Head of Media Studies at Ellen on Q.10, which I’d rehearsed with my brother the Wilkinson School in Ealing. Mastermind contender week before). After I realised I was into double episode 23 2015/16 BBC2 (available on BBC iPlayer). figures, I relaxed a little and enjoyed Round Two

more, despite some silly mistakes. My final score concerned ’ first name in the novels of PG Wodehouse PG of novels the in name first Jeeves’ concerned

(21), would have been a winner on some weeks, question the fact In Reginald. was name first ’ that nation

had told the the told had Mastermind

but sadly not this one. Relatives, friends and pupils that claiming in, wrote viewer angry An 10.

have pointed to the length and difficulty of my 1995) – Egghead an now – Ashman (Kevin 41 9.

questions as opposed to my competitors’; I keep a 2009/10) Thuraaisingham (Kajen 5 8.

diplomatic silence and wear an enigmatic smile. I 1997-2003 7. 6. A glass bowl glass A 6.

do feel that I’ve attained a deeper knowledge of the finish’ I’ll so started ‘I’ve 5.

randomness that lies at the heart of the universe. 2) (originally seconds 30 2minutes 4.

Perhaps this is my reward, rather than the kudos minutes 2 3.

of finishing as overall champion – or perhaps I’m Magnusson Magnus 2. 1. 1972 1.

just a bad loser. In any case, as a Queen’s Park Answers: Rangers supporter I’m used to gallant failure.

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 29 20/07/2016 17:02 M M 5 7 f i n a l 30

2 0 . 7 . 1 6

4 p m . i n d d

3 0 2 0 / 0 7 / 2 0 1 6

Deposit photos © lunamarina

1 7 : 0 2 Musician and music-blogger Andrew Parker-Law has a rant about the mythology surrounding the stereotype of the tortured musical genius.

ecently I was working in a recording studio, helping record a notorious punk band’s comeback single. They were lovely blokes, professional and friendly, and a far cry from the reputation built up for them by gossip-hungry tabloids. Whilst talking with the singer, something he said struck me with its dispiriting familiarity. I can’t remember what he said verbatim, but it was along the lines of ‘I need to have a beer or two otherwise the demons start to surface’. It was said with the casual flippancy one might reserve for ‘I This narrative has need to leave now or traffic will be hell’. The drowning of demons with alcohol is something so familiar to us it can be brought up with a smile as been gradually part of casual small talk. The very real pain and suffering it implies is formed by a considered unremarkable, normal even. The punk singer in question is dealing with the aftermath of having combination of the been crucified by the media, ritually humiliated in glorious technicolour deification of music for an audience of millions. He is, quite frankly, a laughing stock. Add that to the difficulties we all face living in today’s capitalist hetero-patriarchal in the west, capitalist society, and it’s no surprise he feels the need to drink his demons away. interests, and media The casual and destructive abuse of alcohol, amongst other drugs, is an integral part of what I call ‘The Rock Star Mythology’. sensationalism. Every culture has its saints, spirits, demons, gods, rituals and We love nothing mythologies. We are no different; one of our most popular and enduring cultural myths is that of The Rock Star. more than seeing something beautiful The Parable of the Rock Star get destroyed. A young man discovers he has a gift, a talent. He is... a musician. Despite being almost certainly middle class, cisgendered, straight, and white, he feels an outcast from society and immerses himself in his instrument (most likely guitar), and dreams of a time when he will show them his true brilliance. A handful of disciples gather, so enamoured of our hero’s gift that they form a band around him, playing his songs and helping to facilitate his vision. These early days take place in garages, small venues that smell like wee, and other such undesirable locales that our hero deigns to lower himself to playing in. After a year or so of this humiliating slog, the band is discovered by a talent scout who instantly recognises the game-changing genius in these scruffy white boys and their charismatic leader. A multi-million pound deal is struck, the hits come thick and fast. Tour after tour, complete with all the requisite debauchery, cars in swimming pools, drug fuelled orgies, TV out the hotel window, and so on. The fans lap up every moment, and our hero finds himself elevated to the rock-god status he always deserved. Legions of people flock to stand beneath him and hear the prophet speak. His behaviour, however dangerous or abusive, is laughed away as part of the high-flying world of : ‘you just wouldn’t understand, man’. After a few years, the drugs and excess begin to take their toll. His rampant alcoholism is romanticised and incorporated into the public perception of his tortured genius. Before long he is dead (quite possibly at 27) and immediately canonised. Forever young, forever beautiful, he will be a star eternally. Admittedly this is a cynical projection; but it is the basic path followed by many white cis-male rock stars throughout the 20th century and onwards. It is my belief that this narrative has been gradually formed by a

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 31 20/07/2016 17:02 Pete Doherty - vocalist of Babyshambles performing in Bristol, February 2006

combination of the deification of music in the west, capitalist interests, and media sensationalism. We love nothing more than seeing something beautiful get destroyed. Our lives are often so alienated and unhappy that we can enjoy living vicariously through our favourite musicians (who have the rare talents we mere mortals can never hope to achieve) and take out our frustrations by revelling

© Lebrecht Music and Arts Library/Alamy© Lebrecht Photo Photo Stock in the (occasionally literal) car-crash surrounding their decline and/or death. There is more to say from an anti-capitalist standpoint in critique of this contemporary myth but that’s another article. Narratives of Talent This narrative contributes to a culture of male entitlement and violence by suggesting that musical talent is somehow rarefied, special, and largely reserved for white middle-class cisgendered males who look similar to each other. As a drum teacher, I know that while some may be born with a greater inclination towards playing music, there is absolutely nothing stopping anyone from becoming the best musician you’ll ever hear – provided they’re willing to put the hours in. The myth of the Rock Star – or indeed, the tortured artist in general – appeals massively We need to unpick to young men with social privileges they don’t recognise or understand. It provides a way to participate the narratives we are in and enjoy the privileges of the wider culture whilst basing our choices on, maintaining the self-perception of being different, outcast and special. Surrounded by A&R men, managers, booking question where our agents, record producers and other corporate lackeys all desires and ambitions seeking a profit, it is easy to see how our young man can be manipulated into believing his own hype. He is unique, are really coming the saviour of guitar music! You wanna be a star doncha? from, and investigate Stick with me, kid, sign here. He is entitled to, and inherently deserves, all the rewards a capitalist culture can throw at him. who actually benefits This is not to say that all musicians sucked into this machine from what we do. are secretly talentless; far from it. It is to point out that the predominance of young, white, straight, cis-men in our music scenes reflects our enforced cultural values, rather than the reality of artistic skill. It is easy to feel entitled to the supposed rewards of musical talent (drugs, money, fame, material possessions, sex) when you look like the vast majority of famous musicians. Many who rise to the top of creative industries find them to be ultimately hollow; check out the documentary I Am by Tom Shadyac for a great exploration of this. The schism between their expectations and their actual experiences can lead to violent and abusive behaviour, mainly directed inwards but often also outwards. Stories of drinking, drugs, physical

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 32 20/07/2016 17:02 and emotional abuse of partners, physical violence towards bandmates, peers and employees, the sexual abuse of female A quick google will fans, straight-up paedophilia, hateful diatribes in the media, and general obnoxiousness are so commonplace that each provide you with new revelation of a previously revered musical icon’s awfulness endless accounts comes as little or no surprise (at the time of writing it’s Lou Reed’s turn to be scrutinised). A quick google will provide of sexism, racism, you with endless accounts of sexism, racism, transphobia, transphobia, homophobia, misogyny, sexual violence and awful behaviour in the music industry, the vast majority of it perpetrated by men. homophobia, Our capitalist society dangles many carrots in front of us. misogyny, sexual We are constantly fed lies that tell us that if we work hard at whatever our circumstances place before us, our opportunities violence and awful will expand and we will be rewarded materially. The social behaviour in the conditioning we put men through that can leave them with a strong sense of entitlement finds them extremely susceptible music industry, the to these lies. The tropes and archetypes represented in our vast majority of it films, TV shows, music, newspapers, and so on don’t spring up Sid Vicious and perpetrated by men. Nancy Spungen in from nowhere, and don’t exist in a vacuum. If we want to end September 1978 patterns of male violence in any area, not just art and music, we need to unpick the narratives we are basing our choices on, question where our desires and ambitions are really coming from, and investigate who actually benefits from what we do. The punk singer described at the start of this article is

the perfect example of my Photo Stock Ltd/Alamy Press © Pictorial argument. Picked up by an ambitious record label at a young impressionable age, he was thrust violently into the spotlight, encouraged to appear on television and in magazines acting out the archetype of The Rock Star. He obliged. Having met and spoken with him I can only assume that because he was young he believed that that was how it was all done. Cisgender (often abbreviated to cis) is a term Be rude and obnoxious, take up space, get into fights and used to describe people whose experiences of be as wild as you can, because no publicity is bad publicity, their own gender agree with the sex they were right? You wanna be a star doncha? His band’s decline was assigned at birth. Cisgender may also be defined inevitable because violent behaviour is not sustainable. When as those who have ‘a gender identity or perform a I mentioned to friends I was working with this band, their gender role society considers appropriate for one’s laughter said it all. The recording session in question found sex.’ It is the opposite of the term transgender. the band older, wiser, sober-er, and kinder; but haunted by There are two versions of the term: cis-male/man the past and the aforementioned demons. Let’s all make for ‘male assigned male at birth’ or cis-female/woman time to look at contemporary mythology and perform some for ‘female assigned female at birth’ (Wikipedia) much-needed exorcism on the parts that do not serve us. It is worth noting that many students of gender studies and feminism dispute this term Andrew Parker-Law is a musician, music blogger and freelance because they believe it imposes an oversimplified journalist. approach on the complexity of sexual identity

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 33 20/07/2016 17:02 How football, charity and social media can work together

name terms now) was on a one-off visit the charity, a journalist and photographer Andrew McCallum recounts to promote work that a charity does from the Sun, and a reporter, producer, how his family’s role in a with my eldest son, Joseph, aged 13. camera and sound operator from campaign to promote the The charity in question, Noah’s Ark the BBC’s Match of the Day. His visit partnership between a Hospice, places volunteers in the homes was all part of a coordinated media charity and a football club of families with children who have campaign to promote the partnership shed light on how a media terminal illnesses or severe life-limiting of the football club and the charity. campaign unfolds across conditions. They play with and look And as an added bonus Harry really after the children, as well as helping out would help out with the housework! different platforms. around the home, so that the families My primary response to the day was have time to get on with other things. one of immense excitement. I was Tottenham Football Club supports about to achieve a lifetime ambition t’s not every day that a famous the charity in an footballer calls round your house to arrangement that do a spot of ironing. But that’s exactly specifically aims to what happened to me recently when encourage young ITottenham Hotspur and England star, men to volunteer: Harry Kane, came knocking on my door. hence the visit of The 22-year-old striker, leading goal- their leading player. scorer in the for the For Harry Kane did 2015/16 season and conservatively not come alone. Oh estimated to be worth at least £60 no! An additional million on the transfer market, didn’t 16 people came: pop in by accident; nor, must I point representatives out, is this a regular occurrence for me from the club and and my family. Harry (we’re on first

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 34 20/07/2016 17:02 Older media in many ways still hold value over and above newer, more easily accessible ones

and appear on Match of the Day! But Stage 1: Social Media the Daily Mirror, who ran short bits of I also kept my professional hat on, written copy alongside the video link. watching carefully over the two hours Social media coverage can occur in of the visit to gather material for a real time, with no need for specialised Stage 2: Newspaper Article MediaMagazine article about how a equipment or expertise. So Noah’s Four days after the visit, the Sun charity campaign is put together and Ark Hospice chose to tweet about the newspaper ran a double-page spread disseminated through various media. event as it was happening, one of their of an interview with Harry Kane that I was slightly wary of doing this. After team tweeting regularly before, during took place at my house (in my lounge!). all, here was an event co-ordinated by and after the arrival of the star player. I Neil Ashton, the paper’s chief football a charity which does incredible work resisted putting out my own media feed correspondent, and also a presenter for my family and a football club whose until everyone had left, before tweeting on Sky Sport, wrote up a profile of players we all idolise. Did I really want a picture of Joe and Harry, alongside the the player, in which he talked about to analyse how such an exciting day words ‘Look who we had in our back Tottenham’s season and his own hopes was constructed for maximum media garden today!’ A couple of hours after for the future. Ashton had been invited effect? My wariness, it turns out, wasn’t the event the official Tottenham Hotspur along on the basis that he would justified. The day was so fantastic, all of Twitter feed linked to video footage shot mention the link between Noah’s Ark the assembled participants, including by the club’s PR team of Harry speaking and the football club at the end of his Harry Kane, so happy to co-operate and to camera outside our house, ringing piece. As it was, he was so impressed give of their time, that the experience the doorbell and being led through into by Kane’s maturity and willingness to felt very un-mediated, making it easy the kitchen by Joe’s younger brothers, get involved that he wove this into the for me to see a way of writing events Nate, 11, and Fran, 8. This footage was article itself, giving the charity more up. I would look closely at how the retweeted several hundred times, exposure than he need have done. campaign unfolded over time via various including by the charity, and was also media: social, print and television. picked up by the online sites of two national newspapers, the Mail Online and

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 35 20/07/2016 17:02 These different media do not exist in isolation, and each feeds into the other as part of a carefully coordinated transmedia campaign.

Stage 3: Television feature was posted on the ‘Premier Social media tends to be a form that Transmission League in the Community’ area of the alerts people to emerging stories and BBC Sport website, where it remains events, rather than going into depth After 12 days, footage of the visit to this day. In turn links were made to about the events themselves. So many was shown on the Sunday morning this by the Twitter and Facebook feeds of the tweets put out by Noah’s Ark extended edition of Match of the Day. of both football club and charity. alerted followers to the prospect of Harry Kane was shown doing some watching fuller coverage on Match ironing, making a cup of tea, digging The Whole Caboodle of the Day at a later date. They were the garden and having a kickabout with also part of a much larger social media In the production and dissemination of all three kids. There was also footage campaign, co-ordinated by both this campaign there was a clear hierarchy of him being interviewed by my two charity and club, to promote their in operation in terms of the status and youngest sons (his childhood heroes partnership. Where there was a chance impact of the different media platforms were Teddy Sheringham and David to go into more detail, in the Mail Online used. While the event could be circulated Beckham; yes, he is sometimes told off by version of the story, for example, the quickly and cheaply using social media, his manager, Mauricio Pochettino) and with sufficient of my partner, Anna, being interviewed interest generated about Joe. I appear for about one second, for it to be picked lurking in the background as Harry up by the national enters the kitchen, and from behind as (online) press, the I lift Joe’s wheelchair into the house. production values Stage 4: A Permanent Web were relatively poor and the coverage Presence relatively light in Immediately after Match of the Day terms of content. was transmitted, the 3.49 minute

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 36 20/07/2016 17:02 reporting was actually of low quality production values were also superb, Andrew McCallum is Director of the and factually incorrect. It implied that capped off by the accomplished English and Media Centre. all of my children were terminally interviewing and reporting style of ill and living in the hospice itself! experienced reporter, Leon Mann. You can read more about the The Sun article was of a much higher Ultimately, though, it is perhaps Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice here: quality and would have had a likely counter-productive to set out these www.noahsarkhospice.org.uk/ readership in the millions. But the different media in terms of a hierarchy paper came along for Harry Kane, of value. They do not exist in isolation, not the charity, an example of how and each feeds into the other as part from the archive: access to big media names is given of what was a carefully coordinated From Awareness to Action through a process of negotiation transmedia campaign. Leon Mann, for With Cartoon, MM9 by the various stakeholders. example, has a sizeable Twitter following, Match of the Day offered by far the on which he commented about the slot, Viral Campaigns and Charities, MM51 most prestigious, high quality coverage, and much of the social media coverage Sport and Television, MM18 suggesting that older media in many from the charity and football club ways still hold value over and above promoted the Match of the Day item. newer, more easily accessible ones. From a personal point of view, it was Perhaps part of the reason for this lies in always very clear that there was a logic its exclusivity. A very limited number of in releasing coverage of the event on places are available on the programme’s different platforms and at different times. community slot, while any charity can Perhaps more importantly, for me and my film and post its own footage online. family, the day itself was pure magic. Take Noah’s Ark was certainly thrilled to have away coverage of all types and the visit secured a slot as a way to promote its of Harry Kane, footballing legend, still partnership with the football club. The lives on in our memories. Back of the net!

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 37 20/07/2016 17:02 Why repertory cinema matters

A repertoryrepertory mmeanseeans a sstorehousetorehouuse oro repository. From the same root we get ‘repertoire’ and before rep cinemas there were repertory theatres with stock companies. If you don’t know about these and what ‘working in rep’ meant for actors, it’s worth looking up.

There have always been debates in Media and Film Studies about how ‘contemporary’ the focus should be. At one extreme is the view that studying a canon of classic texts is the way to maintain academic rigour and artistic taste. At the other is the view that new work and new ideas are essential for a ‘modern’ subject. It’s probably best to aim for both, and a diversity of ideas, texts and debates. But what is ‘new’ often turns out to be remarkably similar to what has happened before. We can only really understand what’s happening now if we understand what happened in the past; if we lack that understanding we could be making a false move forwards. In this short piece I want to focus on just one concept – that of the repertory film screening.

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 38 20/07/2016 17:02 Film Distribution and Exhibition he idea of a repertory cinema – or repertory programming of any cinema – is to show films that are not currently on release in theatrical distribution during the short window in which a film is promoted and supported by the rights-owning distributor. Most cinemas rely on the distributor’s promotion of new films through advertising, social media campaigns, commercial tie-ins, personal appearances etc. to attract audiences. Repertory cinemas show films that have already been proved to be ‘popular’ – whether they have been big box office hits, critical successes or have gradually become cult films, attracting fan audiences of different kinds. Repertory cinemas were at their peak from the Film studies 1950s through to the 1970s, showing the best of should be global art cinema as well as classic Hollywood films. Film students and TV directors would learn about partly about film style and ideas about narrative by going to a introducing rep cinema like the original Everyman in Hampstead in North London, to see contemporary arthouse you to the films alongside revivals of German Expressionism or range of Soviet Cinema from the 1920s or Italian Neorealism from the 1940s. Before the advent of film studies different courses, this was how filmmakers learned about films from the history of cinema. During the 1970s the British Film Institute attempted to develop a network 120 years of full-time and part-time Regional Film Theatres of cinema. around the UK. These showed both new art films and classics as part of repertory programming. In the 1970s and 1980s a different kind of repertory cinema experience also developed,

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 39 20/07/2016 17:03 © James North Films were made to be seen in cinemas and, properly presented, films from before you were born can still surprise you.

with late night programming, sometimes in cinemas are now moving into the mainstream, mainstream cinemas, with double bills of horror showing more Hollywood films on current release. and other forms of exploitation cinema. Stephen Curzon, Picturehouses and the (new) Everyman Woolley, later a well-known producer, began chains are opening cinemas in many parts of the working as a 22 year-old repertory programmer UK, but the range of films they show tends to be at the Scala Film Club in London in 1979: limited outside London, and sometimes restricted to single ‘slots’ like Picturehouses’ ‘Discover Tuesdays’. I had fire in my belly and wanted to create Various attempts have been made to include an alternative NFT (National Film Theatre), repertory programming in commercial multiplexes, where you could laugh at [Luis] Buñuel, but none of them have really succeeded. However, weep at [Douglas] Sirk and scream at there are cinemas outside London, former Regional George Romero. In that first month we Film Theatres such as HOME in Manchester, showed all-night classics and Watershed in Bristol and venues in Glasgow, a celebration of Gay Pride Week shoulder to Edinburgh, Sheffield and elsewhere that still include shoulder with macho men such as Toshiro repertory programming alongside new releases. Mifune, Robert Mitchum and John Wayne. For a period, in the 1980s and early 1990s, The Scala moved to Kings Cross in 1981 and television offered its own version of rep became even more eclectic in its programming, programming with series such as ‘Moviedrome’ on nurturing the love of film in a whole generation BBC2. With screenings of cult classics presented of young people, including the critic Mark by Alex Cox and Mark Cousins (many now on Kermode. For a fascinating account of what YouTube) these shows provided the kind of this experience was like, see Anne Bilson’s self-education in film that the rep cinemas had blog at multiglom.com/2011/08/05/rep- offered young filmmakers in the 1960s and tales-and-other-cinema-memories/ 1970s. Many of the British filmmakers who emerged in the 1990s testify to the importance TV, Video, Multiplexes and Online of this programming – which included subtitled By the 1990s, cinemas like the Scala had almost classic films appearing late night on ITV. disappeared, their function usurped by the arrival All of that is now gone. Even on Film 4, it’s of video and the increase in TV channels. One of increasingly hard to find a diverse range of films the few remaining repertory cinemas in London from before the 1980s, and from outside Hollywood is the Prince Charles, just off Leicester Square. or the UK. The availability of online services such as Two more art-orientated repertory cinemas in the MUBI, BFI Player and others, including YouTube, is capital are BFI Southbank and the ICA, although our contemporary equivalent of rep programming. younger, smaller venues like the Close-up Film However, you have to look hard, and in some Centre are beginning to emerge. Traditional art cases pay a subscription to find worthwhile films.

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 40 20/07/2016 17:03 ‘Video On Demand’ implies individual choice or recommendations by algorithm; but the rep programmer is a real ‘film educator’. If you’ve never heard of directors such as Douglas Sirk or Luis Buñuel, why would you look for them? They are there to be found, but it’s so much better if you can switch on the TV and stumble across an archive gem or, even better, one actually showing at a local cinema. Films were made to be seen in cinemas and, properly presented, films from before you were born can still surprise you. The founders of the ‘Secret Cinema’ operation have proved that archive screenings in unusual venues of carefully selected films with added entertainment features can be very profitable. In 2015 one of the biggest box office successes in the UK was the Secret Cinema release of The Empire Strikes Back (US 1980) which earned over £6 million at the one secret location (18 acres of sets and 400 actors for an immersive experience

costing £78). This was the biggest film event of the Karulius © Paul year. We could claim this as a repertory screening, but perhaps more important is the realisation that the successful re-launch of the franchise in 2015 points towards the influence of early film experiences on the ‘Movie Brats’ of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Star Wars creator George Lucas found his inspiration in 1940s cinema serials and 1950s Westerns and Japanese samurai films. Academic film studies should be partly about introducing you to the range of different films from 120 years of cinema. All successful filmmakers have educated themselves through extensive viewing – not to copy what they like, but to be inspired to try something different. If we lose repertory programming, the breadth of our experience of cinema will gradually narrow, and younger from the archive: filmmakers will struggle to create something new, Secrets, Hidden Identities and trapped inside the same industry formulae. If the Village Movie, MM43 you come across some repertory programming, give it a go. What have you got to lose? Where Everyman Knows Your Name: the 21st-Century Culture of Independent Cinemas, MM35 Roy Stafford is co-author of The Media Students’ Book and author of The Case for Global Film at Pop-up Cinema: Independent http://itpworld.wordpress.com Distribution, MM43

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 41 20/07/2016 17:03 Student Christian Haywood considers how far film can change society.

s an art form, film is often neglected as a force for social change. The US film sector generated $564 billion in 2014, making it financially one of the biggest industries in the world. Perhaps the huge sums of money involved encourage many people to regard film as a medium primarily for art or entertainment, rather than exploring its social impact. But to quote Straight Outta Compton, our art reflects our reality. To demonstrate this I’d like to focus on the relationship between film and a key aspect of a If a writer, stable functioning society: the law. lawyer, judge or If you are reading this article, you probably already love film, and it may well have affected activist can use you in a profound and emotional way. We connect their work to with film, through character and narrative, and once connected, a film can challenge with demand change emotional and political appeals. These appeals in a very real can even lead to changes in government. One example of this is in Oliver Stone’s JFK. way, why can’t a filmmaker? Case Study: JFK and Uncovering the Cover-up In brief, the film follows Jim Garrison, a lawyer who investigates the John F Kennedy assassination and eventually discovers a huge conspiracy by the American government. When audiences flocked to see Stone’s 3-hour epic, many were already convinced of a cover-up; but others were appalled by the thought, the

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 42 20/07/2016 17:03 Kevin Costner in JFK directed by Oliver Stone Alamy Stock Photo Stock Alamy

very concept, that the government might have In total this has led to 318,866 documents committed such an atrocity against one of being released to the public, and a further the most beloved presidents in history. At the 3,603 being withheld. These final documents time of the assassination, the entire process include 1,100 CIA documents. Five of the happened very quickly; Lee Harvey Oswald was documents have since been redacted, with arrested for the shooting, then assassinated the final 3,598 due for release in 2017. himself; Lyndon Johnson became president, So can it be proved that the film and the American public grappled with what itself led to this legal change? was put to them by the government. In one The Final Report of the Act mentions Stone’s key scene in JFK, Agent X, played by Donald film by name, briefly summarises it, though as Sutherland, explains the entire JFK cover-up ‘a largely fictional version’, and acknowledges conspiracy to Garrison, who asks: ‘Is a government its importance to the American public. I said worth preserving when it lies to its people?’ earlier that often film is not taken seriously America accepted Garrison as a patriotic as a part of society. Stone’s name-drop in the underdog; as a result of the film, a new law report marks not only an important moment in was introduced. The John Frederick Kennedy American history, but also in cinematic history. Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 may be a mouthful, but it is a unique piece Case Study: Scum and the Abolition of statute. The Act set up the collection of of Borstal any and all government documents relating to JFK‘s assassination, including evidence Something similar happened on our side of from seven different official committees the pond in 1982. Alan Clarke’s Borstal drama and any presidential library, executive Scum was initially a script for a 1979 BBC agency, independent agency and drama in the renowned Play for Today series, but was withdrawn for being too graphic. The any State or local law enforcement office film is indeed a horrific representation of a that provided support or assistance or British Borstal (a young offenders institution), performed work in connection with a with damaged children committing suicide, Federal inquiry into the assassination seriously injuring others and acting in an of President John F. Kennedy.

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 43 20/07/2016 17:03 entirely criminal manner. The most important Case Study: The Hobbit, the Union character in Scum is the Borstal itself: an and the Government institution that brutalises and corrupts the young inmates, and frankly encourages violence. Of course, there are other ways to In 1982, the Criminal Justice Act finally push for a change in the law. The Hobbit abolished the Borstal system. It is direct, went for a vastly different approach. even from its blunt first section: Few people on Planet Earth have not heard of Tolkien or Middle Earth, particularly in New no court shall pass a sentence of Zealand. This is how the Hobbit dilemma started. imprisonment on a person under Lord of the Rings, one of the world’s biggest 21 years of age or commit such a film franchises, brought about a 40% increase person to prison for any reason. in tourism for , and created Peter It regulates a number of issues, Jackson’s own mini Hollywood there. including the conviction of youths, the ‘Our art reflects But it also brought the country a standard of youth detention centres, new sense of identity beyond its and the treatment, education and our reality’ 40 million sheep and rugby team, rehabilitation of young offenders. (Straight Outta highlighting the stunning landscapes The film’s connection to the Act is and creatives of the country. tenuous in that there is no specific Compton) However, the International Actors evidence or official documentation Union nearly screwed it up, calling to prove the direct effect of the film on the law. for a universal boycott of The Hobbit production But its most definitive impact was in the huge because union rates and agreements were not national controversy surrounding the film. The being honoured. There’s no room for detail morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse famously here, but it involved greed and nationalism. sued Channel 4 for screening it in 1982, but was Ultimately the government got involved and eventually over-ruled; the notoriously brutal passed the 2010 Hobbit Bill which increased the imagery shown in the film created massive public tax rebates for productions over $150 million, and outrage against the criminal justice system guaranteed no more interference from the unions. and the treatment of young offenders more In the end, everyone was better off. The Hobbit generally. The short time-span between the film’s got $20 million more from the New Zealand release and the passing of the Act suggests a government, on top of their existing $60 million pretty strong connection between the two. deal, as well as an iconic location. In return the

Scum Photo Stock Alamy (1979)

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 44 20/07/2016 17:03 government got the international premières, the ‘Hobbiton’ attraction, and an all-round boost to the country’s economy. It’s unsurprising that big budget films like this have studios falling over themselves to increase production and revenue, but... a government? Here we see the importance of film as both an economic and artistic power. Case Study: The Thin Blue Line and the Flaws in the American Justice The Verdict? System Of course the law has just as much an This is perhaps the most surprising example effect on film as vice versa, such as the of the power of film to influence the law. Errol regulations surrounding the exploitation of Morris’ investigative documentary created a child actors, the ethics of duty of care, and whole new genre of ‘thriller-documentaries’, classification issues around age-rating. that is continued today by films like The Film will always be first and foremost a source Imposter. The Thin Blue Line (1988) follows the of entertainment. Should a medium that is used story of Randall Dale Adams, a man who was by most as pure escapism have such a huge and arrested and imprisoned for 12 years for the potent effect on society? As a self-proclaimed film murder of a cop. Morris proves him innocent. buff I’d argue that many films leave an emotional The film’s significance lies in its exposure of and psychological resonance, with both audiences the flaws in the American justice and policing and producers. A two-hour film for a viewer can system, chronicling police corruption, be a two- or more-year ordeal for legal loopholes and the questionable the filmmakers, most of whom have attitudes of the American government. Once connected, passion for their projects that spans It’s not without fault; as with all a film can way past the creative period. If a documentaries, it’s hard to decide what writer, lawyer, judge or activist can the filmmaker has manipulated, and challenge with use their work to demand change in a he uses a ‘noir’ tone to position the emotional and very real way, why can’t a filmmaker? audience as detectives. Furthermore, Clearly there is no fireproof way the film reconstructs fictional footage political appeals. of proving the true impact of film to dramatise the night of the murder These appeals on the law. Over 2,500 films were and subsequent case. In his review, released last year alone. In this Lucien J. Flores says ‘audiences are just can even lead article I mention six. But there is no as willing to accept his construction to changes in doubt that film can and does do of Adams’ innocence, as jurors were good. With a steady growth in British willing to accept the prosecutions’ government. filmmakers, our nation can in the long construction of Adams’ guilt’. This is a term be an example of progressive fair representation of the power of film, filmmaking. The BBC’s motto is ‘Entertain, and the emotional gravitas it brings with it. Educate and Inform’. I feel this is effectively However, one aspect of the film that is demonstrated in the history of film and the law. entirely indisputable is the closing sequence. The other key suspect in the case, David Harris, was brought to trial as Morris was researching Christian Haywood is a BFI Film Academy graduate The Thin Blue Line, and was sentenced to who has just completed A Levels in Film, Media, and Law and is hoping to study Film Studies at university. death. Morris interviewed Harris, and that Contact him at @HayzeeJr conversation is shown throughout the film; in the final interview Harris finally and conclusively admits Randall Dale Adams’ innocence. Adams, who barely escaped the death penalty and was wrongly imprisoned for 12 years, was freed by this film. Its legacy is extensive. The Imposter is stylistically similar, but other films have had a similar effect on their corresponding governments; A Handful of Ash in Kurdistan and Precious: (Based on the novel Push by Sapphire) in New York.

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 47 20/07/2016 17:03 James Bond movies – the most successful film franchise ever. Twenty-four films span more than half a century on our cinema screens. So why have these movies remained so popular? Symon Quy goes undercover to explore how the Bond formula draws on the political, social and cultural contexts of the era to stay fresh.

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 49 20/07/2016 17:03 f you know your Bond, then you will know that the most famous of gentlemen spies was created in 1953 by the British novelist Ian Fleming in the early years of the (1947-1991). The Cold War was the covert, ideological conflict between Eastern bloc Communist nations led by the USSR, and Capitalist nations of ‘the West’, led by Britain and the United States; in this article I will consider the impact of the Cold War and other subsequent ideological shifts in the development of the Bond mythology and the changing versions of Bond himself. First sales of the Bond novels were steady rather than spectacular. President Kennedy’s inclusion of From Russia with Love in his list of top novels for Life magazine in 1961, however, gave them a boost – particularly in the lucrative American market. Yet Bond is now a it was the screen version of James Bond, as played global commodity by Sean Connery, who really captured the public’s imagination as the ultimate, suave Cold War warrior. that can ill afford The release of Dr. No in 1962, with its winning to marginalise formula of danger, beautiful ‘Bond Girls’, exotic travel and inventive gadgetry, initiated the most- important profitable and longest-running film series in history. markets if it is to Doctor No, Connery and the Cold War maximise return Conflict to its investors. If we accept the notion that films are products Characterisations of the social and cultural forces of the time of their production, then we can decode their social and of ‘the enemy’ political values. A close reading of characters, their might need to motivations and dialogue, their representations of nationality, enables us to understand a film’s be subtle rather world view, or ideology, which can be defined than overt. as a system of beliefs reflecting the values of a social group, class or nation. That James Bond is a screen representation of particular Western values in the context of the Cold War is clear from the outset of Dr. No. From his Saville Row wardrobe to his ‘special relationship’ with Felix Leiter of the American CIA, and in countless other ways, Bond is clearly characterised as British and a product of his social class. Some critics have gone so far as to suggest that Bond should be seen as an agent of the ruling powers who maintains the status quo and hegemony (the unseen power of the ruling elite). James Chapman has argued that… Bond, particularly in the early novels and films, can be interpreted as a reassertion of Englishness or Britishness in a world

Deposit photos where Britain was suddenly losing its empire and struggling to find a new role. Appreciating the historical context helps our understanding of why the quintessentially British hero exerting his cultural superiority was so popular with the contemporary audience.

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 50 20/07/2016 17:03 Towards the climax of Dr. No, Bond meets his enemy, a brilliant nuclear physicist, face-to-face. Doctor No invites Bond to join forces with him and his mysterious international criminal organisation, SPECTRE. Doctor No is opportunistically taking advantage of Cold War divisions: East, West, just points of the compass, each as stupid as the other. Bond is unable to accept this analysis, preferring important markets if it was to maximise return to characterise his foe as a mad scientist. He needs to its investors. Characterisations of the enemy his enemy to be his straightforward opposite. This might need to be subtle rather than overt. We can is called a Manichean ideology, and is defined watch this play out over a timeline of the re-booted as one which breaks down the world into black franchise spear-headed by Daniel Craig, which or white, good or evil – viewing the world in a represents the changing range of Bond’s enemies, binary opposition. And so the Bond franchise was their ideological positions and narrative functions, to remain – for the next forty years at least – in and the cultural anxieties on which they draw. a world characterised by East/West distrust. 2002: Casino Royale Die Another Day, Brosnan, and a Enemy: Le Chiffre (Mads Mikelson). Changing World Order Criminal activity: believed by MI6 to be Albanian, officially stateless, and a financier Fast forward to the start of the 21st century and of international terrorism. M, Bond’s handler, Die Another Day (2002), Pierce Brosnan’s fourth and implies that Le Chiffre conspired with al-Qaeda final outing as Bond. The Berlin Wall, that symbol in orchestrating 9/11, or at least deliberately of East/West conflict, has fallen, and a new world profiteering from the attacks by short selling order is emerging. Critics are less than impressed large quantities of airline stocks beforehand. with the film’s reliance on CGI and a science-fiction Cultural concerns: This film picks up on the storyline that included an invisible car. Even worse, cultural zeitgeist (mood of the times) of anxieties might the British spy be potentially out-muscled in about organised crime linked to East European the global market-place by the emerging American refugees from former Soviet nations. Arguably it Bourne series? There is concern that the 007 encodes criticism of Western financial institutions franchise might be finally coming off its wheels... with its ethical practice and insider-trading scandals. Die Another Day had attempted to stay true to Fleming’s traditional ‘Capitalism versus Communism’ narratives, relocating its storyline in North Korea and the threat to global stability brought about by Colonel Moon (Will Yun Lee). Yet to critics, his character typified the sense that Cold War narratives were outdated and needed a new sort of ideological bling to attract future audiences. The franchise needed a new direction if it was to remain successful at the box office. Casino Royale, Craig and the Threat of International Terrorism Casino Royale (2006) ushered in the Daniel Craig era with a pronounced intention to return to the gritty realism of the novels and a stated wish to play things differently. But what might represent evil in this new slate of Bond films? Who might be ‘othered’ as Bond’s binary opposite? Britain and America still have significant military involvement in overseas conflicts – from Afghanistan to Iraq and Syria. Might it now make sense to construct ‘the enemy’ as religious fundamentalists or Islamic extremists? Perhaps, but Bond had become a global commodity that could ill afford to marginalise

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 51 20/07/2016 17:03 2008: Quantum of Solace Enemy: Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric) Criminal activity: Greene is a false environmentalist who plans to create an artificial drought and stage a coup d’etat in Bolivia to set up a puppet regime. He then intends to strike a deal with the figurehead, making his company the sole utilities provider, which would sell back the water at grossly inflated prices. Cultural concerns: This film reflects concerns about the electoral successes of the Green Party, and anxieties about the sale of utilities companies, such as gas and electricity, to overseas investors. 2012: Skyfall Enemy: Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) Criminal activity: Silva is an embittered ex-MI6 agent who seeks vengeance on the organisation he feels betrayed him, and particularly M. He hacks into MI6 and leaks photos of agents onto the net, causing a major scandal and forcing M to resign, before murdering her as revenge for betraying him several years earlier.

Shutterstock Cultural concerns: This ‘home-grown’ enemy might in some ways represent the London bombers of 7 July 2005, particularly given the A Manichean film’s SFX spectacle around a bomb on the and the destruction of a tube-train. ideology is defined as one 2015: Spectre which breaks Enemy 1: Ernst Stavro Blofeld, aka Franz Oberhauser (Christoph Waltz) down the world Criminal activity: He leads international crime into black or syndicate SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter- Terrorism, Revenge, Extortion). Their board white, good or meeting reports on human trafficking and other evil – viewing the exploitative activity in unstable areas of the world. Cultural concerns: A composite of world in a binary concerns about organised crime, destabilised opposition of nations and human trafficking. Enemy 2: Max Denbigh AKA ‘C’ (Andrew Scott) conflicting sides. Criminal activities: Denbigh is an unelected, senior civil servant. He aims to modernise and digitise global espionage by cutting back on agents like Bond and launching a multi-national global surveillance initiative called Nine Eyes from a newly-built Centre for National Security. Cultural concerns: The film questions where surveillance technology and CCTV is leading us. It arguably takes advantage of concerns about science, for example, the ‘smart blood’ injected in to 007 enables him to be tracked globally – similar to the software on our mobile phones. Is smart blood the ultimate (and literal) invasion of our personal space and privacy? It also critiques the failure of democracy –

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 52 20/07/2016 17:03 Ultimately, when it comes to the ideology of Bond movies is the bottom line always profit

‘C’: ‘Take a look at the world... chaos... because people like you, paper-pushers References and politicians, are too spineless to do www2.le.ac.uk/research/discoveries/ what needs to be done. So I made an bond-in-a-21st-century-context alliance to put the power where it should www.denofgeek.com/movies/ be, and now you want to throw it away spectre/answering-the-spoilery- for the sake of democracy, whatever the questions-of-spectre#ixzz44ZqxIehd hell that is. How predictably moronic...

Finally, the film’s focus on cyber-terrorism may refer to Edward Snowdon, Julian Assange and the Wikileaks affair and their perceived challenges from the archive: to the practices of Western governments. James Bond – the Special World So, where do these latest developments leave of an Extraordinary Icon, MM41 James Bond himself as a manifestation of British values? Well, perhaps this is addressed in Spectre’s Public Service and Public narrative through the theme of loyalty. One of the dDuty – National Identity most notable props in the film is the china figurine and Bond 23.0, MM49 of a bull-dog, first seen on M’s desk in Skyfall. It What’s the Big Idea Mr Bond? MM44 is left by Olivia Mansfield, in her estate to James, who understands its significance and meaning. After World War I, patriotic bulldogs draped with Union Jacks were introduced into the Royal Doulton collection, because they were considered to be symbols of the dogged determination of British people. The figurines were reintroduced during World War II. , the British Prime Minister in WWII, was also associated with the bulldog. Early versions now trade on eBay for hundreds of pounds. Might this prop lead us to an understanding of the Bond franchise in the context of modern-day consumerist society? Ultimately, when it comes to the ideology of Bond movies the bottom line is always profit.

Symon Quy is Head of Media at Stockley Academy in Hillingdon.

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 53 20/07/2016 17:03 John Oxley Library, State Library State John Oxley Library, of domain Public Queensland.

eeling prepared for your Unit 1, Section Jonathan Morgan provides you B, Cross Media question can be rather with the essential revision guide to daunting, particularly as the nature of the cross-media study for AQA’s the task is a rather awkward hybrid AS Media – but it can be used as an between unseen exam preparation and adaptable checklist whichever exam coursework – you can prepare materials for the spec you are preparing for! question though you can’t bring them in to the exam; there is also the understandable temptation of using all the hours of extensive research you have undertaken, irrespective of the question that comes up. What a waste! AQA removed the aspect of this question which previously stated ‘provide an overview of your cross media study’ because it found that students were (perhaps understandably) writing a generic essay about their cross media study, summarising their research and providing a descriptive account of their media texts. It is paramount that your answers are focused on the question, and that the

Domain Public nal exams. research carried out is selected carefully to relate to the question – and if that means leaving out some fantastic analysis then so be it; the examiner can only reward you for answering the question A Student of the University of British Columbia of British Columbia A Student of the University fi studying for set, not producing a pre-prepared response of your own choosing. You can select from a range of topic areas, including lifestyle, documentary, music,

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 54 20/07/2016 17:03 news, sport and broadcast. The advice a variety of strategies as provided below is focussed on broadcast- an integrated campaign film/TV, though the approach could mostly – therefore looking at be applied to the other areas too. unofficial websites can often Firstly, remember that you need 3 media texts be a rich source for analysis and your research should include analysis of the and help to present the 3 platforms: broadcast/print/emedia. In effect, debate on who holds power you will therefore need to make reference to 9 within the media industry – texts in the exam – a potentially daunting task producer or audience (terms in 45 minutes; thus being selective is crucial to such as prosumer and UGC success in this question. Producing a perceptive will be helpful here too). Michael Surran - Students taking a 2.0 BY-SA exam CC computerized and critical response of three film trailers but neglecting the other platforms will severely Do My Choices Have To Be Linked impact on your marks. The examiner is expecting and From The Same Genre? you to consider how the film producers have created synergy between the three different The short answer to this is no; however, to platforms as part of their marketing campaign, enable your analysis to be more sophisticated, and how they target their specific audience; it I would argue that comparing how a genre is also important to consider the media texts as convention is subverted makes for more active and fluid – how the audience can often interesting reading than writing about shape content prior to the film/TV show’s release the three texts as separate entities. – through teaser trailers/spoilers/fans’ websites Remember that texts should be from the etc. it isn’t enough to simply analyse the trailers, last five years – and ideally the last year – as official website and their official promotional there will a richer source of material from poster – you must explore how they have used which to choose (especially new media).

What Should I Research?

Broadcast can include: Print products can include: e-media can include: • Cinema release • Poster advertising • Official website • DVD the Film/TV Show • Fans website • TV show • Previews and reviews • Website of the director/film/ • Review programme of the film/TV show TV stars where they make • Trailer • Film magazine articles – reference to the film/TV show • Talk show e.g. Empire/Total Film • Blogs/Social media sites – • Arts programme • Newspaper feature articles Facebook/Twitter etc. about the film/TV show • Gaming/podcasts Remember that in an answer on Broadcast Film/TV, you’ll need to go through the following process for three TV programmes or Films.

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 55 20/07/2016 17:03 Institution • Film/TV choice • Release date – is this significant? E.g. rom- Convergence com released around Valentine’s Day. • Institution(s) – who made the show? • The use of different • What type of company is it? E.g. Independent/Multi- technologies that come national/PSB? How long it has been established? together e.g..an Xbox Size of company/Is it global or local? How is it is a console and an funded? What is its mission statement, and the on-demand TV box. values of the company. What is their ideology? • What are the audience figures for the film/ TV show? How much has it made at the box office? How has it been reviewed? • Who is the Director/Producer? What are they normally associated with? • Who are the lead actors – and what kind of roles do they normally play? • Who are its competitors?

Genre, Characterisation, Narrative (story line) Narrative & Ideology • Apply Todorov’s Theory of Narrative: 1. a state of equilibrium at the outset; Genre 2. a disruption of the • What genre is the film/TV Programme? equilibrium by some action; E.g. romance/science fiction/fantasy/ 3. a recognition that there gothic/comic book/rites of passage? has been a disruption; • Is it a hybrid genre? (more than 4. an attempt to repair the disruption; one genre mixed together) 5. a reinstatement of the equilibrium • Settings – where is it set? UK or • Is there a binary opposition international locations or place of work presented (Levis Straus)? E.g. good or domestic location e.g. working class versus evil/religion v science? street or more exotic/futuristic settings? • Does the narrative use an enigma code? Characterisation: Themes/Ideology • Character types. Protagonist/antagonist What is it trying to teach the audience? • Apply Propp’s theories – The hero, Does it have a moral message? Does it the villain, the donor, the helper, the present life as utopian or dystopian or princess, the dispatcher, the false hero. is the meaning enigmatic? What is it • Consider representations of age/ trying to teach us about relationships/ gender/social class/occupations/ family life/war/crime/the government/ ethnicity/sexual orientation etc. the environment etc? Is there a political message – Is the text left/ right wing or liberal in its viewpoint?

Debates & Controversy Advantages and Disadvantages • Are there any debates/moral concerns/ of Traditional Media legal issues/controversy? Is there a political agenda? Concerns of privacy/freedom Apply relevant media theory to consider of speech/censorship/violence/sex. how they have power/choice/freedom) • For the producer • For the audience W IDER ISSUES 56

MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 56 20/07/2016 17:03 WIDER ISSUES

Synergy • How do the three Audience analysis – the relationship between platforms come together the producer and the target audience to communicate effectively What’s the target Demographic – Audience Types with their audience? How is • Consider age/gender/social class/occupations/ there a consistent brand? ethnicity/sexual orientation etc. • Explore different definitions of audience categories – e.g. Young & Rubicam’s.

How should the text be read? • Is there a preferred reading/dominant reading/ Audience theory and negotiated reading/oppositional reading (Stuart Hall) media effects – i.e: can you • Are we expected to sympathise/relate to a character apply any of the following or condemn them for their actions? theoretical ideas to your chosen texts? • Hypodermic needle • Uses and gratification • Cultivation • Desensitisation • Copycat killing • Reception analysis • Audience pleasures • Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Advantages and Media Language Disadvantages of To explore the media language of your chosen Digital Media texts, you should choose a key scene from the trailer/ Apply relevant media theory opening or a moment of conflict. Remember that to consider how they have you should not simply identify language techniques power/choice/freedom) – you must consider their impact on the audience, • For the producer and what they are trying to represent about the film/ • For the audience TV show and the genre/narrative/characters. • Camera Angles – e.g. long/medium shot/POV/ crane shot etc. Consider what this represents about the programme/film and what impact is it intending to have on its target audience? • Mise-en-scène – what is included in the scene and what is intentionally left out? And finally, when you have • Editing choices – e.g. fast cut/flashforward/flashback. completed the above – you • Use of sound – diegetic/non diegetic sound. will then need to look at the Use of music and sound effects. past exam questions and consider whether your research has adequately prepared you. Are there gaps in your research? If so, fill them!

Jonathan Morgan is Head of Media Studies at Sale Grammar School, a subject expert for OfQual, and the author of 22 education publications.

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 57 20/07/2016 17:03 How did an ‘everyday story of country folk’ become the most talked about soap on social media? Caroline Birks investigates.

hen the first regularly scheduled world’s longest running radio soap. When ITV television programming began first started broadcasting in 1955, The Archers in 1936, many critics predicted famously featured a particularly dramatic death the death of radio. Up until this in order to restrict the audience for the launch point, audiences had rushed home to gather of the new television channel – proving the around the ‘wireless’ to listen to their favourite power of this much loved soap. Traditionally, shows, enjoying a truly shared media experience. The Archers is broadcast Sunday to Friday at However, predictions about the future of radio 7pm in 12-15 minute episodes, each repeated have proved wrong, with more ways to listen and at 2pm the following day, with an omnibus on more variety of programming than listeners in the Sunday. This means that it is easy to tune in and 1930s could have ever imagined. The Archers is that the audience don’t need to make a huge one example of radio programming that has commitment. Live audience listener figures have stood the test of time and gone on to become remained steady for the last ten years at around ‘the smash hit of the digital age’. 5 million – for many listeners, it accompanies The Archers, which began in 1951, is the daily routines such as washing up or bathing

The show has attracted more than a million new listeners since March 2015 – a growth of 42% compared to the previous year, and a ‘new generation of fans’ – The Archers has suddenly become cool. © BBC - Photographer: Pete Dadds Pete © BBC - Photographer: Desk,Courtesy of BBC Picture with permission

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 58 20/07/2016 17:03 the children. But it is the ‘catch up’ audience fact, Sean O’Connor, the show’s editor, has been that has started to grow – a younger audience blamed many times for turning the programme than those tuning in via kitchen radios. In into a radio version of the BBC One prime-time 2014, The Archers podcast was named the most soap. But he has defended the storyline saying, downloaded podcast across the BBC (beating ‘We’ve been doing hard-hitting storylines shows such as The Daily) and it is also since the early days...’ O’Connor had worked on available to stream on iPlayer radio. According EastEnders before, and is leaving The Archers soon to the Telegraph online, the show has attracted to return to the soap as executive producer. more than a million new listeners since March The most frustrating element of the storyline 2015, showing a growth of 42% compared to the has been the slow erosion of Helen’s self- previous year, and heralding a ‘new generation confidence at the hands of a man who many of fans’ – The Archers has suddenly become cool. fans despise, and the feeling of being unable The Archers is set in Ambridge, a fictional to help a much loved character. Twitter has town somewhere in the rural Midlands, and been the perfect way for audiences to vent is the home of the Archer family – farmers their frustrations, often tweeting along to the who have been threatened by floods, new Sunday omnibus. The Archers already had a roads and falling milk prices. More recently, strong online presence before this storyline, with Helen Archer has been at the centre of one Twitter users such as @theplarchers tweeting a of the most controversial storylines in the range of pictures during the Sunday omnibus programmes’ history. Helen is a victim of using Playmobil characters to tell the story domestic abuse at the hands of her husband, (Rob is depicted as a in these images, Rob Titchener. It is this storyline that is said to whilst Helen wears farming green). Another be the reason that new listeners are tuning in. listener, Paul Trueman, felt so compelled to do The story has had a slow build up over two- something after listening to the storyline that and-a-half years with Helen experiencing ‘coercive he set up a Just Giving page called ‘The Helen control’. Listeners have heard her change her Archer Rescue Fund’ because ‘for every fictional hair, her clothes, her job and her friends – all Helen, there are real ones’. To date the page because Rob doesn’t approve. The episodes have has raised over £126,000, the biggest single made difficult listening, and have challenged donation Refuge has ever received. The Archers the sleepy, easy-going tales of rural life for which fanbase is clearly an active audience; alongside The Archers has become known. The plot has its presence on Twitter, The Archers Facebook angered many fans, who have accused writers page has 61,731 likes, there are also a number of making the show too much like EastEnders. In of Archers forums such as Mustardland, and alternative podcasts such as DumTeeDum – a show about The Archers by Archers fans. The domestic abuse storyline came to a head on Sunday 3rd April when, Helen decides to

Predictions about the future of radio have proved wrong, with more ways to listen and more variety of programming than listeners in the 1930s could have ever imagined.

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 59 20/07/2016 17:03 leave her poisonous marriage, Rob goads her beating Call the Midwife and the big budget into picking up a knife, which she uses to stab adaptation of War and Peace, with 9.6 million him. The episode was shocking and instantly people watching at its peak. One reason why started trending on Twitter. The following day, people are watching, according to the Mirror there were a number of newspaper headlines Online is the ‘comfort factor’; alongside its more and blogs about the episode. It recorded sensational storylines, The Archers is made up of the highest audience appreciation figures small comforting stories about shepherd’s huts, in the show’s 65-year-history; but like the cheese-making and fundraising for the church whole storyline, it also caused a number of hall. For a generation that is so digitally switched outraged responses from listeners. Despite this, on, perhaps it is the ‘back to basics’, community others have praised the show for its realism. based storylines that the audience want. Refuge commented that ‘an abused woman is most at risk at the point of separation’. Caroline Birks is Head of Media at Hills Road Sixth The Archers attracts a number of celebrity Form College. fans, although in 2012, the presenter Richard Bacon wrote an article in the Radio Times saying that ‘The Archers is boring’. Following the storyline with Helen, he and Lesley McDowell were challenged to listen to The Archers for a week to see if he would change his mind. At the end of the week, Bacon said: I thought it was excellent and I wasn’t ‘It was so much expecting to like it. It was so much better because I better because I couldn’t see it. couldn’t see it.’ – the This proves the power of radio and in particular, radio drama and its power of radio and in relationship with the audience. particular, radio drama But perhaps it isn’t just the dramatic storylines attracting people to Ambridge. Countryfile, the and its relationship Sunday night agricultural programme on BBC1, with the audience. has recently recorded record viewing figures,

Rob Titchener (Timothy Watson), Helen Archer (Louiza Patikas) © BBC - Photographer: Pete Dadds Pete © BBC - Photographer: Desk,Courtesy of BBC Picture with permission

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 60 20/07/2016 17:03 Over the next few pages you can read the three winning entries from our Why I Love... competition. Here MediaMag, offers you a short explanation for the judges' decisions.

irst, it’s worth saying how much we or detail. Giving the flavour of practitioners really enjoyed your writing, and how whose work you really admire gives the much we learned, both from your reader something to refer back to or follow choices of topic, and the ways you up. For example, Fisayo Lacey convincingly wrote about them. Because we knew communicated the way her screenwriting how much academic writing you heroes have inspired her in her own work. alreadyF have to do, and wanted to offer you the A single striking experience or memory as chance to write more personally and in your own a starting point can really draw in the reader. style, we gave you an entirely open brief (except The smell of vinyl in a record shop, an early for our 750-word limit, which we really didn’t experience of Batman, or even the feeling of need – few pieces were longer than 500 words. a first game of GTA, can set the scene for a Less is more!). We thought some of you might personal appreciation which might otherwise want to write creatively, in the form of fan-fiction, feel laboured. For example, Joey Carabini’s four- graphic or comic stories, or screenplays; you year-old self watching an Ireland vs Germany FIFA didn’t. We wondered whether your choices would match on TV unleashed a life-long addiction to be predominantly digital, or about particular both football and the magical medium of TV, and much-loved artists or texts; they weren’t. We brilliantly illustrates how that particular medium feared there might be too many tabloid-style can open doors to life-changing experiences. reviews of blockbuster films; wrong again. Writing need not always conform to the What we did discover was the following: principles of an academic essay. Structure You wrote best when you used examples and a coherent development of ideas is always you really admired, and talked in detail important, but sometimes in journalism it’s about particularly loved texts from your the tone of voice, the variety of sentence or own personal point of view. The more paragraph length, the use of informal language generalised and abstract the writing, the or questions to the reader that bring an argument less easy to communicate your passion. or passion to life. Our three winners were able to The best writing let us hear your own voice, write simply, conversationally, and confidently, and talked directly to the reader in an informal and yet also show informed knowledge and way, offering a short catch-up snapshot of your understanding of their chosen topics. Not easy! topic, points to look out for, examples or titles We’d like to congratulate our three winners, you really rated, questions or ideas to follow who’ll be joining us at our Awards ceremony on up. Jay Heaton’s piece on film noir managed 6th July. We’d also like to give special mention to to bring a whole genre to life simply with a Scott Banks for his entertaining take on Batman, few visual motifs, descriptive references to Benedict Seal’s eulogy to Lost, Jessie Lee’s love conventions and background, and reassurance for vinyl, and Katie Steward’s passion for Orphan that it’s more interesting than it sounds. Black. And finally a big thank you to all of you who Writing about a process – like scriptwriting, entered – we hope you’ll try it again next year. or editing, or cinematography – works particularly well if you can communicate both the pleasure it gives you personally, but also its challenges, preferably without taking yourself too seriously or too much technical jargon

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7 Number 2 (page 55) Public domain : 0 3 When we think of film noir, we recall iconic rain found both alluring and frightening. This is where soaked cityscapes, dramatic cinematography the femme fatale was born, and their presence in and billowing cigarette smoke. We think film noir was a kind of warning; men feared them, of hard-edged anti-heroes, bent cops and so they were frequently portrayed on screen as dangerous femmes fatales. Everyone smokes, dangerous, seductive women who lured the male it’s always raining, and everything seems to characters into a life of crime and deceit. Noir take place in the seediest bar or the crummiest films perfectly reflect the era in which they were motel room. These films are now so iconic made; full of cynicism, paranoia and a general that it’s hard to imagine early film noirs were attitude that things were only going to get worse. actually very controversial and ahead of their If you take the time to read between the lines, time. So why do I love this genre so much? you’ll notice that a few Well for starters, it’s just so different from key themes keep recurring every other genre. Noir narratives are always in most noir films – and unconventional; things don’t always happen in even in modern ‘neo-noir’ chronological order, the lines between good films. Probably the most and evil are always blurred, and nothing ever noticeable is the nihilistic ends well for, well, anybody. Don’t get me attitude shared by all the wrong: it has its fair share of archetypes – almost good noirs. Everything is always a male anti-hero, a femme fatale and a doom and gloom; the male victim of some kind; but these characters are anti-heroes usually have usually very well-rounded, unlike some of the a very negative, cynical two-dimensional characters we see in many view of society, and their modern Hollywood blockbusters. The leading actions almost always end men are usually very flawed and are often in failure and even death. forced into situations that they don’t want to Noirs also tend to feel be in. One key feature of film noir is that no very claustrophobic, and if one is who they say they are. Trust nobody! you want to get really deep you could say this Perhaps the most noticeable feature of reflects the paranoia that the main characters film noirs is the way that they look. Any good are feeling. Any noir with a femme fatale in (and noir is lit with chiaroscuro lighting (that’s trust me, practically all noirs have one, in some the fancy Italian way of saying ‘high contrast shape or form) ends ups with them seducing, between light and dark’) which creates a very or trying to seduce, the main protagonist, so dramatic, dark atmosphere. The setting is themes of sexual attraction and forbidden desires generally a big American city, usually L.A, filled being acted out run through them. If you’re a with iconic noir imagery. Venetian blinds are cinephile like me, you’ll love picking apart noir amongst the most famous motifs, along with films to try and spot these themes, but they’re deserted streets, shadowy back-alleys and even noticeable just from a general viewing. dingy nightclubs. Characters always seem to So this is why I love film noir so much. I be trapped or framed in some way, and the advise you to go and check out some classic use of deep focus cinematography helps to noir films, if you haven’t already (you definitely convey a sense of confusion and unease. They should have!). And if you don’t know where are heavily stylised, which makes everything to start, I’d check out Double Indemnity, or The so much more interesting to look at. Third Man, two of my personal favourites. What most interests me is the historical context that influenced much of what makes up the film Jay Heaton is a student at Barrow-in-Furness Sixth noir genre (trust me, it’s not as boring as you Form College. think!) The classic film noir period roughly runs from The Maltese Falcon (1941) to Touch of Evil (1958), which was a time of political and social unrest in American society. This era spanned both WW2 and The Cold War; social tensions were high and the American public feared another global war was just about to break out. The nihilistic, ‘hard-boiled’ detectives found in almost every noir film were inspired by the real life veterans who returned physically and psychologically scarred from the war. They came home to find newly independent women in society, who they

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I’ve always wanted to be a writer. A writer American Beauty, Moonrise Kingdom and Barton of what didn’t matter. Short stories, poetry, Fink that have each increased my love for cinema. snarky tweets; I just knew I loved to write. The My biggest screenwriting inspiration is, feeling of getting that perfect combination without a doubt, Charlie Kaufman. He is of words, strung together to form the the writer of some of my favourite films like sentence you didn’t even know you were Adaptation, Being John Malkovich, Eternal looking for, is a feeling that I can’t shake. Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and recently, I’ve also always loved film. The genre didn’t Anomalisa. He deftly combines surreal situations matter either. Comedy, romance, documentary; with wretched characters and encourages me I just loved anything that profoundly made to think further outside of the box with the me feel something. The idea of being worlds I place my characters in, as well as the transported to a different world and being characters themselves. For me, Kaufman always able to see it, hear it and become a part of it succeeds in creating something particularly is something that’s still so special to me. memorable with an array of genres and I stumbled upon screenwriting at quite a young characters intertwined in an idiosyncratic story. age, without really understanding what it was. Making a film requires the input and It finally dawned on me whilst watching Beauty collaboration of a variety of people, which and the Beast that someone actually had to write means that individuals can bring forward the words that Belle had just said. I was intrigued their past experiences and own ideologies at first, eager to latch onto my realisation and in order to collectively create something to say ‘that’s what I want to be when I grow up’. be proud of. As a screenwriter, your words Then came the intimidation when I began to transcend a single form – moving from the research the form in more depth. The jargon that page to the screen – so the ability they have came with it, like ‘slug lines’ and ‘beats’, the hour- to truly affect a person is much greater. long videos entitled ‘Why Most Screenwriters I love screenwriting because you can see Fail’ and the countless screenwriting guides your work become something else – something I apparently needed to buy before I’d even bigger – right before your very eyes. I love tried. It terrified me, but in a good way. screenwriting because I’m constantly learning So, I began my first (and might I add, terrible) more about it with every script I read. I love screenplay. In the midst of learning the new screenwriting because film is such an important terminology and getting to grips with it, I found part of my life and the common denominator myself thoroughly enjoying writing, much more between all of the films I call my favourites than anything I’d written before. Screenwriting are great stories. I hope to tell a collection of allowed me to express and join together my great stories with my own writing one day. love for creating characters and the medium of Film that I’d held so close for so many years. Fisayo Lacey is an A Level student at Halesowen I have been inspired by many screenwriters College. whose work I genuinely enjoy reading. Individuals like Mary Harron and Guinevere Turner, Spike Jonze, Alan Ball, Wes Anderson and Ethan and Joel Cohen have created works that I can only read in awe, writing – and sometimes directing – revolutionary films like American Psycho, Her,

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1 7 : 0 3 It was 5th June 2002, three months before my fifth birthday, when Republic of Ireland lined up against Germany in the FIFA World Cup. The German side boasted some of the greatest players in the world, whilst Ireland... well, didn’t. Even with my goldfish-like memory, I still have a crystal clear recollection of Robbie Keane’s last-gasp equaliser, which stunned the entire footballing world. And yet, it was what followed- a celebration beyond any superlative to a four-year-old boy – that got me. A cartwheel, followed by a forward roll (or ‘roly poly’ to me) finished off with a snazzy hand gesture that I maintain was stolen by none other than Usain Bolt. Just like that, I was hooked. You’re probably wondering what all this has to do with television. Well, that match took place in Japan as I sat in the comfort of my own home watching it on TV. Months later I delivered me so many life-changing moments sat and watched TV as Robbie Keane signed from my sofa, from other peoples’ sofas, from for Tottenham Hotspur; and, once again, I was 9’ screens in a rain-soaked tent, and even from hooked. I have followed Tottenham for 14 shop windows on more than one occasion. years now and I remain as passionate as ever, I remember reading Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby never missing a single game on TV. Keane now where he talked about going camping but plays in Los Angeles and I willingly stay up becoming so upset that he was missing the into the early hours of the morning to watch football that his father travelled hours just so they him play. Looking back on it, where would I be could listen to it on the radio together. We’ve without television? Would I have seen Keane’s advanced so far from radio now but I still saw so celebration? Would I have fallen in love with many of my own traits in Hornby’s younger self. football? So many of the memories that have Much like a great novel, television can shaped my life wouldn’t have happened without mean so many different things to so many TV: the tears, the cheers, the tantrums and the different people. For me, however, it means the ecstasy, it’s all happened in front of the TV. continuation of my love affair with the Beautiful It’s all so silly really, but I just can’t get away Game and for that I say: Thank you, television. from it. I’m addicted. Whether I’m watching the team prankster’s latest video on social media Joseph Carabini is an A Level student at The Windsor or the big derby match with baited breath and Boys School. a case of the heebie-jeebies, I love it all. Well... not all of it. There have been more than a few moments when I hated it more than anything I’ve ever hated before, yet somewhere deep, deep down I still loved it. For that reason, I couldn’t be more grateful for the way in which television has

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MM57 final 20.7.16 4pm.indd 67 20/07/2016 17:03 EMC Student Conferences

englishandmedia.co.uk/conferences

Each year the English & Media Centre runs a MediaMagazine conference for A Level and Level 3 Film and Media students, featuring inspirational speakers for all specifi cations. This year's conference will be held on 26th January 2017 at a new venue, Friends House, a few minutes walk from Euston station.

MediaMag Student Conference Thursday 26th January 2017

• We are delighted to announce our keynote speaker: the legendary TV director, producer and writer, Tony Garnett

• Other speakers on gaming, news, fi lm production and social media to be confi rmed at the beginning of the autumn term.

• Booking opens online 8am Tuesday 18th October – but save the date right now for an unmissable event!

Upcoming emag Conferences emagazine Literature Conference Friday 14th October 2016 emagazine Language Conference Tuesday 28th February 2017

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