The Spectacle of the Social Media & Rock Identity Media Violence the Marvel Universe Feminism in the Digital Age

DECEMBER 2015 ISSUE 54

THE SPECTACLE OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA & ROCK IDENTITY MEDIA VIOLENCE THE MARVEL UNIVERSE FEMINISM IN THE DIGITAL AGE

MM54_cover.indd 1 30/11/2015 12:51 Contents

4 Making the Most of MediaMagazine is published MediaMag by the English and Media Centre, a non-profit making 6 Know Your Role and Shut organisation. The Centre Your Mouth: The Spectacle publishes a wide range of of The Rock classroom materials and Sean Richardson considers runs courses for teachers. the concept of the If you’re studying English Male Gaze, with a case at A Level, look out for study of The Rock. emagazine, also published by the Centre. 10 Social Media: Identity Heaven or Identity Hell? Mark Dixon looks at the impact of Web 2.0 technology in the context of AQA’s ‘Media and Identities’ topic.

13 In Defence of (Some) Media Violence: Style and Substance Steph Hendry explores the ongoing debates about the impact of 6 violence in TV drama. The English and Media Centre 18 Compton Terrace London N1 2UN 16 Jurassic-sized Box Telephone: 020 7359 8080 Office: The Chinese Fax: 020 7354 0133 Are Coming! The Email for subscription enquiries: Chinese Are Coming! [email protected] Nick Lacey analyses changes in the global box office, and the rapid rise of the Chinese market. Editor: Jenny Grahame 20 Why Watching Films Is Copy-editing: Andrew McCallum Good For You Andrew McCallum argues Additional proofing and copy-editing: that films should be afforded Tina Courtenay-Thompson 56 a similar status to literature. Subscriptions manager: Emma Marron This magazine is not photocopiable. Why not subscribe to our web package Design: Sam Sullivan which includes a downloadable and printable PDF of the current issue or Newington Design encourage your students to take out an additional £12 subscription? Print: Tel 020 7359 8080 for details. S&G Group Cover: San Andreas, © Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo

ISSN: 1478-8616

2 26 Carry on Scoring: the Sound of the Carry Ons Christopher Budd ignores the pratfalls and double- entendres of the Carry On series to focus on the humour of their soundtracks. 34 30 The Marvel Intertextual Universe Marvel are taking intertextuality to a whole new level with their comics, films and TV shows all feeding into one massive multimedia universe, says Pete Turner.

34 Synths and Upgrades: 20 26 the Real-world Themes behind Humans Siobhan Flint unpicks contemporary fears about technology, artificial intelligence, and morality in Channel 4’s Humans.

38 Cartoon by Goom: 16 Genre

40 Silencing Women: Feminist Frequency and 30 62 Anita Sarkeesian Mark Ramey introduces 50 For Your Consideration: 56 ‘The More You Deny Me the controversial feminist What’s the Point of the the Stronger I Get’: Trauma, criticism of Anita Sarkeesian. Movie Awards Corridor? Repression and Catharsis in Jonathan Nunns The Babadook 44 Beach Bodies vs Real wonders whether movie Gabrielle O’Brien explores Women: When a Marketing awards really matter. a genre-bending Gothic Campaign Goes Wrong movie which probes the Emma Calway 53 In Plain Sight? Privacy, inner world of the mind. investigates a notorious the Press, and the advertising campaign. Protection of the Powerful 62 Marketing Marmite in Harry Cunningham the Postmodern Age 48 From Beaconsfield investigates the role of Symon Quy unscrews the to BAFTAS the media in allegations lid of the Marmite jar to Simon King sings the 13 of child abuse against explore how advertisers praises of the 2015 BFI Film celebrities and politicians. are meeting the challenges Academy/NFTS residential of the 21st century using filmmaking course. postmodern approaches.

3 Making the Most of MediaMag

For Your Consideration: Movie Awards Welcome to our new regular feature, Corridor which we hope will give you and your teachers some new ideas for using Live case study: investigating the nominations. Around the class, each group should adopt one of MediaMag in your studies – either the films nominated for Best Film/Best Director, and in class, or in your own time. Every research its production data, initial reception, previews, issue we’ll pull out several articles we and any links to previous award-successful movies. think would be enhanced by further • In role as the Head of Marketing for the film, prepare research, or be useful for you in a pitch outlining the credentials of your movie, revision for A2, and provide some why it has been nominated, and why, in your view, links, tasks, and/or group activities it should win. Use evidence from both the article to be followed up if you wish (or and your own research to inform your presentation not!). In some cases we’ll spin off – and make it as persuasive as possible. into related topics; in others, we’ll • Evaluate the class’s pitches, and take a vote on the film suggest some short simulations most likely to win. or explorations which might be • After the awards event, revisit your class pitches, and see how closely (or otherwise) you were able to predict the winner. quite fun. We hope it’s useful!

The Marvel Cinematic Universe Invent your own ‘cinematic universe’. You are an independent production company asked by a major studio to pitch proposals for a new franchise with The Spectacle of The Rock the potential to launch a ‘cinematic universe’. You have 30 minutes to come up with your pitch. In response to an alleged crisis in masculinity, Sean Richardson introduces the concept of the male body as In your group, brainstorm ideas for the franchise. You a hyper-masculine spectacle, personified by The Rock could consider: a popular series of novels; an existing TV (aka former wrestler Dwayne Johnson). The article draws series which could be developed as a series of movies; a heavily on the work of theorist Yvonne Tasker and her book non-Superhero take on an existing comic book; a narrative Spectacular Bodies, which is an interesting text for research. spin-off series built around a well-known character from This article reverses Laura Mulvey’s well-known theory fiction – the choice is yours. of The Male Gaze. If you haven’t yet studied this influential Develop a strategy for your franchise, using some of the debate, it would be useful to read ‘A Beginner’s Guide ideas in Pete Turner’s article. Think about the following: to Laura Mulvey’, MM21, which summarises Mulvey’s • Your vision for the cinematic universe, and why you think thinking and applies it to the film Y Tu Mama Tambien it may succeed. For a contrasting perspective, in another medium • Your stars and director/s – who, why, what sort of and genre altogether, you could explore the (less contracts, links to other franchises, characters and genres. spectacular and more postmodern) representations of • Building the cinematic universe – setting up masculinity in a programme such as Top Gear in this article: expectations, using intertextual links, post-credit stings building towards future films, deals with other studios, ‘Postmodernity or Past It? Masculinity and Top Gear’ MM30. cross-platform synergy, merchandising etc.

4 A creative competition and an invitation! The 2016 MediaMag Production Competition ach year, MediaMag hosts a competition to share and enjoy Ethe amazing creativity and skill of our readers – and this year that means you. It’s the highlight of the MediaMag calendar, and your chance to showcase your talents! If your work is shortlisted, you’ll be invited to a screening, awards ceremony and Style and Substance – Violence networking reception at the prestigious NFT1 at BFI Southbank. To give you a taste of the competition, visit the webpage for This article focuses on responses to violence the 2015 awards here: https://www.englishandmedia.co.uk/ in TV Drama, particularly on violence against competitions/the-2015-mediamag-production-award-winners/ women. To find a way into this frequently- You’ll be able to see the winners in each category with discussed debate, it might help to remind a single click, and if your school subscribes to our website, yourself of the different and conflicting theories you can also view the entire shortlist of 28 brilliant videos around media effects on audiences. Good covering all manner of genres, formats and styles. starting points would be the following articles: Full details of the categories, formats and rules will be • Categories of violence, MM1 available from the MediaMag home page in January. Download • How to make sense of Audience Theories, MM3 and complete the entry form (with your contact details in • Dangerous Games, MM40. capitals please). Deadline for entries: 18th March 2016 Shortlist announced: 22nd April 2016 The Feminism Cluster: Beach Bodies; Awards event: Wednesday 6th July 2016 at NFT1, BFI Southbank Anita Sarkeesian and Feminist Frequency These articles work well together as an exploration of Media and Identity (Gender), An Invitation to Write for and the ways changing media technologies and platforms have opened up new debates MediaMag and issues around feminism. Plenty of ediaMag wants to get you writing! We want to hear more of further research to do here, for example: Myour voices in the magazine, and give you the chance to share • You could trawl through the files of the your own passions, interests, and favourite media experiences. advertising regulator ASA for case studies of We want short pieces of writing from you – no longer than 750 discriminatory, complained-about or banned words – on the topic: advertising at https://www.asa.org.uk/News- Why I love ... (insert your own choice of text, app, game, box- resources/School-parent-resources.aspx. set, band, movie, reality TV show, social media platform, celebrity, magazine ... you name it, as long as it involves the media, you can • In groups, research a short presentation for write about it). the class analysing the debates about gender And that’s it! No rules, except word length; no particular format representations in one of these websites or style – just your own voice, your own choice of text, and a really referenced in the article: Feminist Frequency; This compelling and persuasive piece of writing which explains just how Girl Can; Everyday Sexism; FCKH8; He for She. and why your chosen passion appeals to you, and why it might • Explore further ideas about changing appeal to others. approaches to feminism in some of We’ll publish the strongest pieces, and pay you a small fee, and the following archive articles: there will be a prize for the most outstanding article we receive. • Regulation of advertising, MM11 You can send us your writing at any time, but the deadline for • Deconstructing Britney, MM19 articles will be 18th March 2016. Just email it as an attachment, • Post-feminism in contemporary film, MM26. using the subject line Why I Love, to [email protected] We’re looking forward to reading you!

5 © Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo Stock / Alamy Ltd Press © Pictorial

The Spectacle of The Rock

6 You may be familiar with The Male Gaze but now there’s a newer focus of study: the concept of the ‘spectacular’ male body – a return to traditional male representations in an era of superhero and action movies. Sean Richardson considers the recent rise of an iconic actor who both represents and personifies this shift: The Rock.

he representation of masculinity is a popular topic for Media students, who spend hours deconstructing film and television tough guys. Physical size, strength, charisma, pronounced facial features, aggressive behaviour and a strong moral code are characteristics of the male protagonist in film and television narratives. The male body as a ‘spectacle’ is part of the way filmmakers draw the viewer into the filmic experience. Men can identify with the warrior male, and women can look at, or gaze on, the man as a ‘spectacle’. The time is right for A Level students to focus on the male body as a ‘spectacle’, to be looked at, consumed, idealised and packaged; the concept of ‘the female gaze’, so popular with students, should now equally be applied to masculine protagonists. The Gaze (sometimes called ‘the look’) is an academic term originally used in film theory in terms of representations of women, but which is now more broadly used by media theorists to refer both to the ways in which viewers look at images of people in any visual medium, and to the gaze of those depicted in visual texts. The feature film Fast & Furious 7 (2015) starred one of the most popular male icons of modern Hollywood: The Rock, aka Dwayne Johnson. Using the same alias, he is a professional wrestler who has made the crossover to Hollywood A-List acting. The masculine spectacle of The Rock is part of his modern Men identify with the warrior male, appeal, with the monolithic nature and women can look at, or gaze of his presence on on the man as a ‘spectacle’. screen captivating audiences globally. He is 6ft 5in tall and 262lbs, a behemoth on screen: Chest – 50in, Waist – 35in, Arms/Biceps – 20in, Legs/Thighs – 31in. He wears a shoe size 14. Johnson is known as one of the best professional wrestlers of all time, yet he is no stereotype: Left: San Andreas

7 and has global spectacle appeal. This is the cinema as the modern gladiator arena, where mere mortals go to observe the Star Gods battle. The dialogue of the scene sets up the almost stylised nature of the sequence: Hobbs: I’m also the last man on earth whose computer you want to be hacking in to. You just earned yourself a dance with the Devil, boy… 60ft high in the cinema space, Hobbs is seen in slo-mo crashing through the office plate glass window to set the battle off. Statham was told by director James Wan to establish with the audience that he is capable of damaging a character as invincible as The Hulk. In the filmic universe of Fast & Furious 7, in a testosterone-fuelled fight, Right: ‘The Rock’ Below: San Andreas Hobbs/Rock takes a beating from Statham’s Shaw using signature moves. A move called ‘The Rock Bottom’ begins with a spinning camera as Statham is picked up and smashed into a glass coffee table, moving into a Dutch-angle close-up of his shaven head smashing the glass into a thousand HD shards that come at the audience in 3D. The two alpha males battle for screen dominance: in other words, they are battling to be looked at. In a key scene, after Hobbs winds up in the hospital, Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto goes to pay him a visit. When Dom walks into Hobbs’ hospital room, Hobbs is watching 1970s TV show The Incredible Hulk: a postmodern film reference thrown in by director Wan to position Hobbs as the new Incredible Hulk of modern Hollywood cinema. The male action-hero body is invariably © Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo Stock / Alamy Ltd Press © Pictorial Domain Public shown stripped and in action, be it flexing he graduated from Miami University in 1995, muscles or fighting, punching and kicking. The with a degree in Criminology and Physiology. Rock is shown in movement, an ideal for men If we interrogate one of his best-loved roles, to identify with and want to resemble, a rock of as the character Luke Hobbs in Fast & Furious monolithic proportions on screen as a spectacle. 7, we can see how The Rock is constructed as a The Rock and San Andreas spectacle. Hobbs is an agent of the Diplomatic Security Service. A supporting character in the The Rock’s major breakthrough came with Fast & Furious franchise, Hobbs tries to hunt down San Andreas (2015) as the alpha male around criminal Dominic Toretto. He later becomes a whom the film revolved. His body was in itself full cast member, the crew’s ally and friend. The the spectacle, part of the draw of the $100m film. San Andreas couples the horror of a massive Two alpha males battle for screen earthquake in California with the spectacle of our hero, playing Iraq veteran and rescue-chopper dominance: in other words, they pilot Ray, on a dangerous journey across the are battling to be looked at. state to rescue his daughter and ex-wife. Rock brings a distinct physical size and strength In recent years, film critics have pointed to the role, with his angular facial features, to an identity crisis in on-screen masculinity, aggressive behaviour and a strong moral code. challenged by androgyny and metrosexuality – a Jason Statham’s character, Shaw, invades fascinating Media Studies area to investigate. Hobbs’ office and sets the scene for the hyper- But in San Andreas The Rock plays an excellent masculine spectacle of The Stath versus The Levi-Strauss binary opposite to those masculine Rock, which transcends the film narrative, insecurities; arguably he signifies a return by

8 Hollywood to a more traditional kind of American In Conclusion masculinity, where men are powerful and will save the day. Thousands die as Los Angeles and Yvonne Tasker describes the action film San Francisco are virtually levelled by a series as an ‘explosive and excessive cinematic of 9-plus Richter earthquakes along the San context’ that provides a setting in which the Andreas Fault. However, it is not the catastrophe white male body can make obvious displays we are really watching but The Rock in role of masculine spectacle. Sylvester Stallone as Ray, veteran-turned-LA Fire Department and Arnold Schwarzenegger are the iconic chopper pilot, as he valiantly searches for his cinematic action bodies that most clearly link estranged wife, Emma (Carla Gugino), and to The Rock’s phenomenon and appeal. These their daughter, Blake (Alexandra Daddario). Caucasian bodybuilder stars from the past were The film dwells visually on the idea of Ray/ similarly successful. But in an interesting ethnic The Rock as masculine saviour. He flies a representational twist, Hollywood downplays helicopter, an aeroplane, drives a pickup The Rock’s ethnicity: in San Andreas, he is the and captains a powerboat. He knows how all-American Californian hero cowboy archetype, to skydive, outwit an incoming tsunami and with no narrative reference to his part African- where to stay safe in a collapsing stadium. He American and part Pacific Islander roots. is The Man, literally. The $100m CGI element is The return to a mythic, pure ‘hyper- dwarfed, or at least matched, by The Rock’s star masculinity’ in modern Hollywood cinema quality and physicality. Alexandra Daddario as can be seen as a reaction to the crisis in his daughter (in a bizarre Hollywood casting masculinity. In a world where gender roles are anomaly, she is all-American, with no reference in flux, returning to the security of the extreme to The Rock’s ethnic heritage) provides the body spectacle of The Rock is significant. In a more traditional female spectacle, introduced moment of clarity, early in his career, The Rock in a bikini with 120 seconds of screen time; but coined a massively pertinent catchphrase: Ray, the male visual focus, hogs the screen. ‘Know Your Role and Shut Your Mouth’. One key scene highlights the film’s return to a hyper-masculine representation. The Sean Richardson is Subject Learning Leader for Media ex-wife character, who now naturally wants Studies at Penistone ALC Sheffield and moderates A Ray back, takes shelter from a stadium Level examinations for a leading awarding body. collapse under a massive wall and says, in a line delivered totally without irony: Sometimes you need something big and strong to protect you. The body of The Rock is now a character within the film – the ‘massive wall’ of manhood Contemporary American action that protects and represents security. The work of theorist Yvonne Tasker is movies work hard, and often at the particularly useful for A Level Media students expense of narrative development, researching issues of gender and representation. In her book Spectacular Bodies, she observes that, to contrive situations for the … [like the] showgirl that Laura display of the hero’s body. Mulvey refers to in classic Hollywood films, contemporary American action movies work hard, and often at the expense of narrative development, to contrive situations for the display of the hero’s body. In Spectacular Bodies, Tasker discusses the rise of the ‘muscular star’ whose ‘armour’ can ‘make the body signify a physical invulnerability.’ In the scenes I have analysed, the idea of The Rock as a significant new masculine spectacle becomes clear. He represents the reaction – perhaps even the solution – to the alleged crisis in masculinity where men’s roles and identities are in flux.

9 Mark Dixon looks at critical and theoretical responses to Web 2.0 technology, particularly social media, in the context of the exam requirements for AQA’s Mest4 ‘Media Identity Heaven or Identity Hell? and Identities’ topic.

ll A Level Media Cyber-utopianism and specifications include the Participation: Negroponte, study of representations of identity – a tricky area to Gauntlett and Jenkins investigate, which will differ according In the earliest days of the internet to your awarding organisation. AQA it was impossible to predict the full tests this through its MEST4 ‘Identities impact that web technologies might in the Media’ case study. Its rubric have over time. Theorists such as suggests that the key to producing a Nicholas Negroponte highlighted successful response lies in the potential social divisions that the understanding that the media no web could overcome, arguing at the longer works as a unidirectional force, time that we would ‘socialise in digital but that we, the audience, are media neighbourhoods in which physical producers too – that social media, user- space will be irrelevant’. Indeed, it generated content, Web 2.0, or has been argued that the world has whatever else you want to call it, now become a smaller place as a result of allows us to construct and circulate our broadband roll-out. But has it fulfilled own personal and social identities in the hopes of thinkers like Negroponte, new and diverse ways. who thought the web would act as a The question that a successful case social leveller? That no matter who you study has to determine is the effect were, or what identity you associated that this new social media dynamic with, the web would provide us with a has upon identity construction. In a space to explore, connect and diversify? world where technology dominates Modern cyber-utopians would our every waking moment, it’s easy suggest that those early hopes are to identify both positive and negative manifest within Web 2.0 interfaces. impacts. Theoretically speaking, Academic David Gauntlett, for we can divide those positive and example, espouses the creative benefits negative effects into two broad of the Web, declaring that ‘Making is viewpoints: cyber-utopianism and Connecting’, explaining that platforms cyber-dystopianism. The former like Instagram and YouTube offer us view extols the internet as a driver the opportunity to create and share for social good, allowing society to our output with like-minded others. become more inclusive; the latter sees For Gauntlett, Web 2.0 is a means of our attachments to new technology expressing who we are, enabling us as restricting and dangerous. to achieve our creative potential. With permission of NYU Press, Penguin Books, Sherry Books, Penguin Press, permission of NYU With (MIT)Turkle Gauntlett and David

10 American theorist Henry Jenkins online, 3D virtual world Second Life, too links Web 2.0 with an explosion which offers users the means to craft in what he calls ‘participatory culture,’ a mediated or self-constructed avatar wherein traditional media producers presence in cyberspace – often in are replaced by a new generation of opposition to a restrictive real world. creative prosumers. For Jenkins, Web Second Life may today be a niche 2.0 has the power to democratise our service, but the principles of Turkle’s society. We are no longer subject to the concept of ‘mediated’ identity live on manipulative messages of the media, in the form of Facebook, Instagram for within the new digital landscape our and YouTube, where users often voices are part of the media. Jenkins abandon the physical in favour of suggests that Web 2.0 also allows us idealised expressions of self. to appropriate professional media Unshackled by cyberspace we are products, harnessing their messages for free to ‘perform’ versions of ourselves our own purposes. that are exploratory, idealised or Our personal data turns us into a Enter the controversial. From the transgender world of Vimeo YouTubers who challenge old media commodity, to be bought or sold. parodies, YouTube stereotypes of gender to Facebook mash-ups groups like the Lad Bible, social media and fan fiction, where media-savvy frees audiences from the straitjacket users wield digital technologies to of traditional society. The eminent reshape the ideas of the mainstream, sociologist Anthony Giddens suggests deploying them, in Jenkins’ that this brave new world moves us words, as ‘creative scaffolding’. closer to a truly pluralist society, a A useful example of this can be found post-traditional world that offers its in the debates surrounding The Jeremy citizens the capacity to engage in Kyle Show. Social critics like Owen what he calls the ‘self-reflexive project Jones would suggest that JK’s daytime of the self’. In his view, the media no show gives audiences a daily dose of longer dictate fixed ideas of identity, ‘chav’ hatred. Similar concerns have but reflect and enable a proliferating been voiced around documentaries like sense of self in which gender, sexuality, Benefits Street, in which dysfunctional ability and ethnicity are fluid and working-class identities are constructed performed rather than given. Right: The Jeremy for entertainment purposes. Yet, Some would argue those Kyle Show if we look at the social media articulations have fed back into the Below: surrounding these products we can mainstream. Look closely at Netflix’s Bottom: Owen Jones with Permission ITV, ITV For Productions see that audiences are appropriating dramatic output and we find that the programmes for purposes that traditional stereotypes are all but run contrary to the sentiment of shattered. In Sense 8, transgender the original show. Cassetteboy’s star Jamie Clayton won applause remixing skills provide a scathing from the transgender community critique of Jeremy Kyle, whilst White for her portrayal of Nomi Marks. In Dee’s self-constructed social media Orange Is the New Black a rainbow of feeds reveal an erudite star who is gendered possibilities is depicted, compassionate and socially concerned. whilst Frank Underwood’s fluid sexual Real audiences too have fought identity in House of Cards contradicts back, uploading citizen journalism any fixed notion of what gender we

Public Domain Public pieces entitled ‘Real Benefits Street’. need in order to achieve power. Cyber-utopian Identities: Cyber-dystopianism: Turkle and Giddens Sunstein and Martin Other cyber-utopians draw attention Such optimism regarding the to social media’s capacity to allow internet’s influence on identity is users to transcend the everyday in arguably naïve. Indeed, all of the search of more exacting identities. theorists discussed so far would resist Sherry Turkle, for instance, highlights such a simplistic summation of the the opportunities presented by the web’s power. Sherry Turkle, for instance, Public Domain Public

11 made an abrupt u-turn from her which users congregate in like-minded early cyber-utopian standpoint in her ghettos, where ‘likes’ and ‘retweets’ are 2014 book, Alone Together. Her recent markers of ideological affirmation – thinking highlights the pernicious sought and obtained by extolling the effect of our ‘always on’ culture, and values of the ghettos that we sign up to. draws attention to the fake connections It is when those islands collide that played out on social media. We might Alan Martin sees personalisation at its have hundreds of Facebook friends, most problematic. We don’t have to Turkle concludes, but maintaining look too deeply into our Facebook and these mediated connections comes at YouTube commentary streams to find the cost of our real-world identities. adversarial social media ‘banter’ that can Cass Sunstein is another theorist escalate into extreme and entrenched who discusses the negative effects of debate. Alan Martin believes that we the web’s capacity to personalise our are more likely to be adversarial online world. Early Utopians were quick to see because we immerse ourselves in the benefit of the internet as a tool for blinkered communities, identifying our providing tailored content, content that own viewpoints as the centre ground. is bespoke to our identity needs. Web We think anyone straying too far applications have the power to distil: our from that consensus must be wrong, ignorant or mad; in this way, the internet Unshackled by insulates us from unfamiliar ideas. cyberspace we are free Once again, The Jeremy Kyle Show exemplifies the echo chamber in According to Wikipedia, in media, operation. It’s easy to find YouTube to ‘perform’ version an echo chamber is a situation uploads of the show’s most lurid in which information, ideas, or of ourselves that are moments. Dig a little deeper and beliefs are amplified or reinforced we find that the commentary exploratory, idealised by transmission and repetition accompanying those uploads quickly inside an ‘enclosed’ system, or controversial. descends into polemical rant. In a clip where different or competing Twitter feeds are individually generated, entitled ‘Worst Chav Ever’, a comment views are censored, disallowed or our YouTube suggestions are bespoke, about one contestant reads, ‘Deport otherwise under-represented. whilst Facebook uses algorithms to him to the moon,’ prompting a stream Giddens argues that in modern match us to individualised advertising. of angry users to come to the defence or postmodern societies, the It could be argued that our personal of the clip’s unwitting reality TV star. question of self-identity – ‘What to data turns us into commodities, to be The argument peters out in a tirade do? How to act? Who to be?’ – is bought or sold; others suggest that this of expletives – social media at its inescapable. Unlike oral societies, dynamic has a more sinister effect. trolling worst. But with literally millions we have to work out our own Sunstein suggests that our online of similar conversations posted to roles for ourselves. These will be choices reflect our personal, political YouTube everyday, it’s easy to see how influenced by both individuals or ideological biases. Personalisation, far-reaching the echo chamber effect and the state, social and legal he argues, unwittingly excludes ideas is, and how it might hinder Giddens’ changes and, of course, the media. that might challenge those views, notion of the ‘self reflexive project’. suggesting that the internet might act as nothing more than an empty ‘echo Heaven or Hell – the Verdict? chamber’, reinforcing what we want So, social media: heaven or to hear. If we show sympathy for a hell? Perhaps, like most forms of liberal or a right-wing agenda then our communication Web 2.0 is only auto-feeds will supply us with opinions a reflection of our existing social that merely corroborate those views. divides. Perhaps for some, it presents Concentrated and unchallenged, the opportunities to explore their identities; FOLLOW IT UP ideas of even the most extreme groups but for others it works as a set of Gauntlett, D. Making is can thus take on the appearance Connecting home page ideological blinkers concentrating of mainstream ideologies. http://www. their existing prejudices. makingisconnecting.org/ Alan Martin, writing in Wired Turkle, S. TED talk http:// magazine, also suggests that Web youtu.be/t7Xr3AsBEK4 2.0 concentrates our prejudices and Mark Dixon is a former freelance journalist and head of Media and Film at Durham White Dee Facebook intolerances. Martin and Sunstein view https://www.facebook. the internet as a land of ‘islands’ in Sixth Form Centre. com/therealdeekelly

12 Steph Hendry explores the ever-present, ongoing debates about the impact of violence in TV drama.

he debate surrounding the ‘inciting violence’ potential impact of media after what was violence on audiences is one of deemed a ‘copycat’ the most contested in Media crime. Courts in Studies. Fears around the media’s impact the US eventually have been voiced since the rise of the threw the case printing press. The mass media have out; but the Game of Thrones generated many moral panics over the idea that violent Photo Stock / Alamy © AF archive decades, centred on the conviction that representations film, photojournalism, rock ‘n’ roll, horror give rise to violent behaviour problem here is that the effects of the films, computer games and social media remains strong in our culture. media cannot be accurately measured have the potential to create promiscuous, Of course, direct theories of media or proven. Nevertheless, the idea that violent and/or socially inept generations. effects are simplistic and usually applied the media can influence people’s Some commentators are convinced by those who wish to provide quick and attitudes and values and potentially of the negative impact of the media on easy answers to complex social issues. their behaviour has recently motivated audiences. They buy into direct theories Other commentators focus on indirect a number of vocal criticisms of some contemporary television products. of audience impact that claim there is theories which look at the way that the a direct relationship between media media can influence ideas and attitudes Game of Thrones: Is Television representations and audience behaviour. (rather than behaviour). It is argued that Such arguments have regularly been the media have the power to naturalise Drama Getting More Violent? used by politicians, pressure groups and or normalise certain ideas by repeatedly Changes in funding models and in the the tabloid press in the past – especially presenting them as natural or routine, way television is accessed by audiences when in response to shockingly violent simply the way things are. These ideas has allowed television drama writers to events that people seek to understand. allow for the fact that different people experiment more with both form and Famously, commentators have tried to will respond differently to media content. The rise of what is sometimes blame the appalling murder of Jamie representations; it is argued that media called the golden age of television drama Bulger on the schlock-horror film Child’s violence may reinforce the behaviours has targeted adult audiences, and the Play, the atrocity of the Columbine of an already violent person but is most experimental products come from High School shootings on the music of unlikely to make a non-violent person cable channels or streaming services Marilyn Manson, and Anders Brevik’s act violently. However, repeated access where audiences pay a subscription for politically-motivated mass murder on to media violence may desensitise access to the service. This allows cable Call of Duty. In the 1990s the filmmakers a non-violent person, making violent TV shows to be more extreme in their behind Natural Born Killers were sued for acts less shocking and surprising. The depiction of sex and violence; and their

13 © AF archive / Alamy Stock Photo Stock / Alamy © AF archive

True Detective success has meant that more mainstream that is violent and whose victims are of women. In Season 3, female characters productions have followed suit in order statistically more likely to be women? discuss the limited opportunities to compete for adult audiences. available to them, and attempt to Game of Thrones (HBO) is renowned The Dark World of Ripper negotiate the culture of exploitation and for its ability to shock; the show’s nudity, Street dependency created by the society they graphic violence and narrative surprises live in. The madonna-whore complex is have aided its success and regularly The first two seasons of Ripper Street both recognised and challenged, and generated talking points on social media. (BBC/Tiger Aspect Productions) focused women’s behaviours are often shown as It even became a YouTube meme where extensively on women who were being the result of their subjugated social people were filmed responding to the victims of violence. The programme position. One character who has rejected surprise ending of the first season. In received considerable criticism for the the traditional roles of wife and mother the spring of 2014 one scene became way it fetishised the beaten bodies of rebels against her father and tries to notorious for its graphic depiction of victims, especially in its autopsy scenes; build her own business, but finds herself the rape of a main female character. women left alive tended to be victims powerless in the face of patriarchal Yet far from avoiding controversy, the or prostitutes (or both) until a strong pressures. These themes and ideas have 2015 season showed further sexual female character (council-woman always been present beneath the Boy’s violence and sexualised humiliation of Cobden) emerged in Series 2. In its Own violence and crime fighting of women, and even the brutal sacrifice of defence, Ripper Street is set in the late- Ripper Street, but this most recent series a daughter to consolidate her father’s Victorian era, a time in which women’s has bought female characters to the power. These representations generated choices were very limited. Middle-class fore. Women are still victimised and, social media discussions which were women may have been involved in at times, brutalised. But the women in hotly debated in online forums and ‘good works’, but their primary roles Ripper Street are not defined by their in mainstream news sources. were in relation to their husband and victimhood; they are now being shown Tapping into the rise of identity politics children. Working-class women were actively pursuing their own needs and in a culture often driven by social media, frequently at risk of exploitation in desires within a culture that sees them opinion editorial and the blogosphere, some way – some worked for a pittance and treats them as second-class citizens. Game of Thrones has been repeatedly in factories, some were all but slaves criticised for its constant victimisation in domestic service and others found The Genre-bending of women and their overt sexualisation. themselves providing sexual services. Conventions of True Detective Horrors, serial-killer narratives, and crime Many women were victims of violence; to procedurals have also been widely modern tastes, such representations may Another programme criticised for its attacked for their misogynistic treatment seem sexist or even misogynistic, but portrayal of violence against women is of women. But these criticisms raise perhaps Ripper Street is, in fact, offering the critically acclaimed True Detective an interesting question: does screen something close to historical accuracy. (HBO). In some ways True Detective is a violence against women encourage The third season of Ripper Street traditional serial-killer narrative, focusing misogynistic attitudes – or are television (initially broadcast by Amazon) has on two detectives investigating the producers simply reflecting a world marked a significant shift in its portrayal ritualistic murders of young women

14 in 1995. Breaking genre conventions, in distress’ who need saving. The show than Gibson. The Fall depicts violence dialogue, character and atmosphere received considerable criticism, labelled against women as the killers’ weakness, are prioritised over action, in a complex as ‘exploitative, misogynist trash’ in The rather than the fault of the victims; and timeshifting narrative structure with Huffington Post, and elsewhere described the producers allow the audience time unreliable narrators. The show has as ‘casually sexist’. Stalker fell into the to get to know the victims before they been criticised for the way female trap of revelling in the victimisation of are attacked. These are ‘real women’, characters are solely defined by their women; the show’s victims are, inevitably, brutalised by a disturbed and angry man. relationship with men. The madonna- attractive women whose weakness is The mundanity of the lives of the killer whore dichotomy is simplistically used, often exploited by showing then under and his victims achieves what some other presenting us with stereotypical mothers, duress in their underwear, a swimsuit serial killer narratives fail to do: The Fall wives, mistresses, daughters, prostitutes or in the shower. The show’s creator makes brutal murder shocking again. and victims. Males are active and females claims he intended to ‘raise awareness’ passive; and thus True Detective falls into of what he sees as the rise in stalking Style and Substance the same trap as many other dramas crimes facilitated by social media, Stylised violence in programmes that show women in these limited but it appears that this claim to social like Stalker, where killers and the men roles. Victims in serial-killer narratives significance was rejected by the network chasing them are presented as more are often anonymous women who are as well as the critics and the audience. interesting than the (usually) female shown dead at the scene of the crime. Stalker was cancelled after one season. victims, might well desensitise audiences They are also often shown on mortuary Yet many contemporary TV drama to the violence depicted. However, in a tables – naked and displayed. They are series have created active and powerful world where domestic violence, sexual plot devices to allow the (usually male) exploitation and even human trafficking heroes a chance to demonstrate their are daily realities, perhaps TV drama powers by hunting down the (usually should reflect the violent world that many male) villain. Hannibal (NBC), CSI (CBS), women experience. It would be wrong to Criminal Minds (CBS) amongst many ignore the fact that in the UK a woman others have also fallen foul of this is murdered by a man every three days. reductive representation of women. Programmes like Stalker can be Series 1 of True Detective focuses seen to exploit audience fears by on two male characters experiencing creating sexualised images of violence. their own traumas, haunted by loss, Representations of violence in all its patriarchal values, and destructive forms should create unease, distaste, Ripper Street behaviour patterns. Neither man can © Tiger Aspect horror, anger and revulsion. Some create meaningful relationships with dramas achieve this impact with women. While the female characters are female characters. Scandinavian drama unsettling aesthetics (Hannibal), others undoubtedly underdeveloped, this is has a good track record with this in The by increasing the graphic nature of what arguably a deliberate reflection of the Killing (DR/ZDF) and The Bridge (STV/DR/ is shown (Game of Thrones). However, way the protagonists view women. ZDF) and the BBC provided audiences series like Ripper Street, The Fall and with an unconventional, active female Is Victimisation Inevitable? True Detective create three-dimensional detective in The Fall (BBC/RTE). Stella female characters, or demonstrate It is clear that some television Gibson (Gillian Anderson) is a quietly the limited ways women are often programmes do exploit violence against spoken, conservatively-dressed female perceived. In so doing, they allow the women in ways that are harder to defend. who is drafted in to take charge in audience to reconnect and engage The procedural drama Stalker (CBS, an investigation. Her character often with what is too often presented as 2015), took the victimisation of women subverts gender expectations; she is cool nothing more than a narrative cliché. as its central premise. The programme and logical and uses these traditionally identified stalking as a specifically ‘masculine’ traits to hunt down a serial modern threat and showed its victims killer. She has rejected the traditional Steph Hendry is a Media lecturer at Runshaw College and a freelance writer. to be (in the main) women. The very female roles of wife and mother and Follow her on Twitter @albionmill selects partners (of either sex) for first episode depicted a particularly sadistic, prolonged and graphic attack pleasure rather than relationships. She on a woman. The female leader of the shows no respect for the institution investigation is also the victim of a of marriage, and empathises with the stalker, yet despite her seniority, the ‘hero’ victims of the serial killer as he targets of the show is male, and the women single professional women. The killer in the team support the investigation also subverts our expectations; he is a rather than lead it. In Stalker, women family man in a caring profession – in are depicted as victims and ‘damsels many ways more stereotypically feminine

15 © United Archives GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo Stock GmbH / Alamy Archives © United

Shaolin Soccer

ticket prices have increased 35% during Nick Lacey analyses changes in that period, which means the gross dollar the global cinema box office, figures disguise a fall in actual tickets sold. and the effects of the rapid In 2003, 1.57b tickets were sold; in 2014, rise of the Chinese market. 1.27b – a fall of 30 billion tickets over 11 years. One reason for this significant increase in the price of a ticket is the premium charged hina is rapidly consolidating a for 3D films, which after the success of Avatar, reputation as ‘the biggest in the seemed to offer the studios a ‘cash cow’ (i.e., world’, whether in relation to its an easy way to make money). However, the Great Wall, its population, or its novelty seems to be wearing off and 3D was economy. And very soon, it will responsible for only 14% of last year’s box office be also able to claim the title of – a drop of 7% from the 2010 high of 21%. the biggest cinema box office in the world. Put simply: people are going to the cinema At the moment, that title is owned by North less in North America, and this is probably America (USA and Canada combined). But not for due to the increase in the availability of film, much longer. In 2014 North American cinemas legal and otherwise, on other platforms via the took $10.4b at the box office, nearly a third of the internet such as Netflix. There has also been $36.4b worldwide total. Yet this one-year snapshot increased competition from television with ‘must conceals a larger trend: in this case, one of decline. see’ serials such as HBO’s Game of Thrones. Since 2003, when America accounted for 47% To compensate for this decline, Hollywood of the global total, the international box office has increasingly targeted the international (which is what the major studios call anything market: MediaMag 51’s The Decline of the Film non-American) has been growing fast. There are Star (February 2015) found that although two main reasons for this: the maturing of the stars were less important in America, American market, and the increasing importance the international market still flocked to of BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China. films from the likes of Tom Cruise. The American Market Grows Up: The BRIC Countries Are Some Facts Getting Richer! In 2003 the American box office grossed Importantly, the economic growth of what $9.49b; by last year this had risen to $10.4b, economists call the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russian, an increase of just under 10%. However, India and China) have meant an expansion in the

16 The Chinese Are Coming! The Chinese Are Coming!

number of their screens, and thus an increase in In the West we are accustomed to being the demand for Hollywood films (unless you’re Indian, dominant cultural and economic force in the where Bollywood, Telugu and Tamil cinema rule). world. In Britain, however, we have been getting By far the most important of these territories used to our declining influence since World War is China, with the largest population in the II. It is highly likely that America, too, will in the world. Since 2007 the number of screens in future find itself far less important globally than it China has increased almost six-fold, from 3,527 was in the 20th century. At the moment, assuming to 23,592 last year. Despite this, the country climate change doesn’t derail everything, China is still under-screened: in the US there is one is best placed to become the prime superpower. screen per 8,000 people; in China there’s one for 70,000 people! Hence it’s reported that there The Cultural Great Wall are nearly 100 new screens being built every Hollywood has been hugely successful week. Fortunately for Hollywood, the Chinese in China. It would probably do even better like American films: five of last year’s top 10 except that the Chinese government maintains were American, including the top, Transformers: a cultural ‘Great Wall’ to protect itself from Age of Extinction (US-China), which took what it sees as malign Western influences. $320m ($75m more than in North America). For example, Google is blocked in China in In 2014 the Chinese box office took $4.8b – a order to control the information its citizens 33% increase on 2013. It has grown by at least can access. To avoid ‘media imperialism’, where 30% each year for the last decade. By way of foreign ideas are seen to dominate local comparison, the UK (including Ireland) took culture, China restricts the number of foreign fourth position with $1.7b and is, like America, films for distribution to 34 a year. Most, if not a mature market. Franchises like The Terminator, all, of these are Hollywood films. This is due the sixth of which is due in 2017, are relatively for review and is likely to increase in 2017. unsuccessful in America, and are only able to In addition, in order to protect the local film keep going because of the international market. industry, Hollywood films cannot be released at the same time as Chinese blockbusters; Number-crunching in a Globalised and during the summer season ‘blackout World period’, non-Chinese films cannot be released. Given the popularity of cinema, and the Non-mathematicians are by now probably increasing number of screens, it is expected feeling a bit overwhelmed by these statistics. that the Chinese box office will be the biggest But they are vital to our understanding of the in the world by the end of the decade. film industry in this era of globalisation.

17 budgeted at $40m (very modest by Hollywood standards) which had grossed $350m domestically by mid-August. Large budgets are not particularly necessary for Chinese films to be successful – as long as they have strong marketing and distribution across the south-east Asian market. In the early 21st century, low-budget genre films with a distinctive local flavour were increasingly successful. Films such as 2001’s Shaolin Soccer, which took $42m worldwide, and the record-breaking comedy Lost in Thailand which generated over $200m in 2012. Despite Lost in Thailand’s success it only had a restricted release in America, and didn’t appear in British cinemas at all. So although Chinese A Touch

© Photos 12 / Alamy Stock Photo Stock 12 / Alamy © Photos cinema is thriving, it hasn’t broken into Western of Sin markets since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon So it is no surprise that Hollywood is including and Hero broke through over 10 years ago. elements in its films to appeal directly to the It seems that whilst the international market Chinese market, for instance, launching the will watch Western movies, we in the West are international promotional campaign for Iron still rather narrow-minded in our tastes; our Man 3 in the Forbidden City, Beijing. Note that knowledge of China is restricted to knowing it is one of the film’s countries of origins is China (as very big and has a Great Wall. However Arthouse was the case for Transformers: Age of Extinction), Chinese cinema is occasionally released in Britain. through the company DMG Entertainment: Check out the brilliant A Touch of Sin (2013) to get an impression of what living in China is like now. There is no question that DMG’s strong connections with government officials *Unless otherwise stated, the source of all the box offi ce fi gures and the state film colossus, the China are the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) Theatrical Film Group have helped it navigate the Market Statistics, published annually online. sometimes choppy regulatory waters of the world’s second-largest film market. Nick Lacey teaches Film and Media Studies, is the Coonan, 2013 author of several Film and Media textbooks and is a In other words, it easier for the major freelance writer. film studios to distribute films in China if a local company is involved. The Growth of the Chinese Blockbuster FROM THE ARCHIVE The Decline of the The Chinese are not simply interested in Film Star?, MM51 watching Hollywood films. There have been World Film, MM21 an increasing number of Chinese blockbuster World Cinema, MM26 films, such as last summer’s Monster Hunt,

18 In 2003 the American box office grossed $9.49b; by last year this had risen to $10.4b, an increase of just under 10% However, ticket prices have increased 35% during that period, which means the gross dollar figures disguise a fall in actual tickets sold.

In 2003,1.57b tickets were sold; in 2014, 1.27b – a fall of 30 billion tickets over 11 years.

3D was responsible for only 14% of last year’s box office – a drop of 7% from the 2010 high of 21%.

Since 2007 the number of screens in China has increased almost six-fold, from 3,527 to 23,592.

In the US there is one screen per 8,000 people; in China there’s one In 2014 the Chinese for 70,000 people! box office took $4.8b – a 33% increase on 2013. It has grown by at least 30% each year for the last decade. Icons: Flaticon Icons:

19 20 Images by kind permission of Mubi.com Andrew McCallum argues that films should be afforded a similar status to books as a medium for helping us to develop a better understanding of ourselves and the world in which we live.

21 lot of time and attention is given to the social benefits of reading. For example, the press recently reported widely on research by The Reading Agency, linking reading for pleasure with increased levels of empathy and well-being in young people. Other forms of media, however, are given a much harder time. Simultaneously, a Cambridge University study, for example, suggested that an extra hour a day of television, Images kind by permission of Mubi.com internet or computer game time in Year 10 resulted in poorer grades at GCSE. Media specialists are adept at countering such scare stories, often categorising them as ‘moral panics’. Invariably their efforts identify the cultural factors, often linked to issues of social class, ethnicity and gender, that generate these stories in the first place. Clearly, this approach is crucial when developing an understanding of how the media can be used as a form of social control, particularly of young people. But what about taking a different approach? What about borrowing, so to speak, the clothes of the book- loving lobby? (And I write this as a self-confessed book-lover.) What about making a strong case for the beneficial effects of time spent engaging with non-print media forms? What if it were possible to demonstrate that all the great things that books do for minds are also done by, say, films? This approach has a long history, dating back to the mid-20th century. More recently, in 2011 Below: Volver (2006); Melancholia (2011) Images kind by permission of Mubi.com Images kind by permission of Mubi.com

22 From top left: Almost Famous (2000); Moonrise Kingdom (2012); Leon (1994); Taxi Driver (1976) Images kind by permission of Mubi.com Images kind by permission of Mubi.com Images kind by permission of Mubi.com the British Film Institute launched a strategy for with assumptions about the relationship between film education called Film: 21st Century Literacy. language (written and spoken) and thinking. This promoted film as a medium to actively We think, it is often assumed, in words. This is engage young people in learning, with multiple not, however, quite true. Certainly the easiest opportunities to enhance their critical, cultural and most immediate way we have to realise and creative abilities. Similar claims are made our thoughts is through words. And for many for other media too. For example, James Paul of us it feels like we think in words. But what Gee’s What Video Games Have to Teach Us About actually goes on in our heads is much more Learning and Literacy, does exactly what it says in difficult to quantify. Leading neuro-scientist its title, offering readers 36 ways to learn through Antonio Damasio has had a go by comparing gaming. In the same vein, the BBC iWonder site human consciousness to a ‘movie-in-the-brain’, also asserts the positive effects of playing video arguing that ‘movies are the closest external games, including that it grows certain areas of the representation of the prevailing storytelling brain, improves eyesight and coordination, and that goes on in our minds.’ He chooses the even builds teamwork and communication skills. film metaphor because his research suggest So why do such positive models of media that our minds, at an unconscious level, play engagement seem to have relatively little impact through multiple sensations, much as a film on assumptions about the social benefits of book- plays through multiple images (while engaging time as opposed to screen-time? Sociological simultaneously with other modes, such as those factors aside, I would suggest it has a lot to do of music, spoken word, colour, and so on).

23 So if our minds operate, metaphorically, like a movie, what might actual movies do to our minds? I have no hard and fast evidence with which to answer my own question. However, I have recently increased my film viewing to such a degree that I have been able to reflect at length on what this has been doing to my thought processes and my all-round being. For the past 10 years or so, I have watched very few films, spending much of my spare time instead reading novels and, I’m afraid to admit, developing the kind of academic snobbery that regards this as an intellectually superior form of cultural Images kind by permission of Mubi.com consumption. After all, a novel requires a long- term commitment and you have to work hard to bring words to life; a film, on the other hand, is designed to be consumed in a single sitting, with less time to reflect on what is happening during the process of watching. Recently all that has changed for me, thanks to a subscription to mubi.com, a film-streaming service that gives access to 30 ‘cult, classic, independent and award-winning’ films at any given moment. Each day one new film is added, while another slips from the list. From top: Punch- Images by kind permission of Mubi.com In three months I have found myself watching Drunk Love (2012); 20 films. Geographically, my viewing has Gloria (1980); Pierrot spanned the globe from Iceland to Iran, from le Fou (1965); Girl, Interrupted (1999); Italy to Argentina and from Germany to Japan. Dogtooth (2009); Chronologically, I have watched films nearly Drive (2011) Images kind by permission of Mubi.com Images kind by permission of Mubi.com Images kind by permission of Mubi.com

24 100 years old, less than a year old, and at every if I had only watched films in a single genre, stage in between. Genre-wise, I have seen or all in the same language? And in seeking documentaries, romantic comedies, social- out ‘challenging’ films, am I simply transferring realism, neo-realism, the experimental and the some of my previously held snobbery about the just plain weird. And the effect on what is going superiority of novels over to another medium? on in my head? Amazing! I can feel long-ignored Of course, my entire argument presupposes to synapses sparking back to life. Images, dialogue, a certain degree that films have to be educational, colour, sound, narrative, character, setting: all at least in a broad sense. Of course, they don’t, interact with my existing store of memories and and all kinds of films can be watched for all kinds experiences to develop, modify, even transform of reasons (just as all kinds of books can be read my thinking – a classic case-study of Reception for all kinds of reasons). Nor do we necessarily theory in action. In some ways, the impressions need to think of films as better or worse for us from these films seem much deeper than those than other forms of representation. But in a I have gained from reading novels. Perhaps world in which reading is invariably presented because consciousness operates as a ‘movie- as a social good, while viewing is shown in far in-the-brain’, movies find a welcoming space. more problematic terms, it is worth pausing My own experience, while no more than to reflect on the intellectual and cognitive impressionistic, raises some interesting issues engagement that films require and encourage. for anyone wanting to think more about how moving images, and film in particular, can affect Andrew McCallum is co-director of The English and our thinking and understanding. Through the Media Centre. innovative way in which mubi.com is set up, I have watched a wide-range of non-mainstream, relatively challenging films. Each has required a reorientation of my receptive processes. Would I have felt the same level of mental transformation

Boogie Nights (1997); Repulsion (1965)

SOURCES

Images kind by permission of Mubi.com Reading Agency, Reading for Pleasure Builds Empathy and Improves Well Being University of Cambridge, Use of TV, Internet and Computer Games Associated with Poorer GCSE Grades

FROM THE ARCHIVE Dangerous Games: Play, Pleasure and Panics, MM40 Media Effects Debate: Is TV Dumbing Down, MM18 Teens and Technologies, MM20 Images kind by permission of Mubi.com

25 The sound of the Carry Ons

t’s often claimed that the touch but had sadly built a reputation British enjoy a unique sense for unreliability. Rogers wrote the music of humour, the ingredients of for the next 22 Carry Ons, defining the Screen humour is often which can be hard to quantify: sound of the movies through their analysed visually and a dollop of slapstick, a pinch of most purple patch. While there is much verbally, while music scores innuendo, a soupçon of sticking it to to enjoy in the early pictures, all the and soundtracks are often The Man. Nowhere is this heady mix iconic moments (‘Ooh, Matron’) occur overlooked. But what could better exemplified than in the Carry On in the post-1963 canon, as Rothwell’s be more aurally hilarious films, a series of 31 British comedies scripts magically fused with Rogers’ – and more iconically made between 1958 and 1992. Low music to create a comedy institution. British – than the scores budget, made quickly (two per year The Carry Ons were part of a at their peak), and repeatedly filmed tradition of British filmmaking that of the frequently under- in the same locations, the Carry Ons had its roots in music-hall comedy – appreciated Carry On films? now sometimes feel woefully dated. populist and satirical, a little bit saucy, Christopher Budd ignores Yet they’re remembered – and still but in the end good-hearted and the pratfalls and double- enjoyed – with deep fondness and sentimental. Mirroring the narrative entendres to focus on nostalgia for simpler times. If you’ve and direction of the films, Rogers used the sound of Carry On. ever parked yourself in front of the TV many of the sounds and techniques on a rainy Bank Holiday, you’re bound of ‘light music’ to create his scores. to have seen at least one of them – and And to understand that, we have to what could be more British than that? jump back more than 100 years. The Carry Ons fall broadly into two periods; before and after 1963. In that Music Hall year, screenwriter Talbot Rothwell took During the 19th century, most of over from his predecessor, Norman Europe was developing the large-scale Hudis, and the tone of the films dramatic orchestral music that we have altered, their humour broadening come to think of as the ‘Romantic’ style: somewhat. Simultaneously, composer large orchestras, playing emotionally- Bruce Montgomery handed over to charged pieces with wide dynamics, his sometime-arranger Eric Rogers. and incorporating dramatic departures Montgomery wrote with a traditional

26 © World History Archive / Alamy Stock Photo Stock History / Alamy Archive World ©

from the established rules of harmony. for radio, and to this day you can still Archetypes and Leitmotifs Many early film composers, including hear two great examples on BBC Radio Max Steiner (Gone with the Wind, 4 – the themes for long-running soap The Carry On cast operated like a repertory company, with a small group 1939), Erich Wolfgang Korngold (The The Archers (Arthur Wood’s ‘Barwick playing different (but not too different) Adventures of Robin Hood, 1938), and Green’) and Desert Island Discs (Eric roles in each film. Quite quickly, the Coates’ ‘By the Sleepy Lagoon’). Franz Waxman (Sunset Boulevard, 1950), cast members gravitated towards By the 1960s, light music was already were émigrés from central Europe, certain character types, ones not too beginning to sound dated. But in and used their own musical traditions far removed from reality, with the the hands of Eric Rogers, it was the to create the basics of everything result that actor and character (and perfect tool with which to create a that we now know as film music. consequently characters from film to snappy, memorable score. Building Britain’s contribution to the film) became almost indistinguishable. on Montgomery’s work (particularly development of music during the There’s Sid James, lovable oversexed his jaunty Carry On theme) but with same period was typically idiosyncratic, rogue, with loyal sidekick big Bernard brassier arrangements for that rainy including what became known as Bresslaw, well-meaning, clumsy, shy. seaside orchestra feel, he used the ‘light music’. Incorporating elements There’s Kenneth Williams, highly- sound to evoke a simpler time in British from military music, dances and strung acid-tongued prude, and popular entertainment, and to give the comical songs, light music included Charles Hawtrey, yang to Williams’ short, sprightly, even funny pieces, Carry Ons a role as the more modern yin, simpering and effete (and drunk), with strong, hummable melodies. face of those traditional British values. yet likeably jolly. Joan Sims is the Such compositions were ideal fare versatile everywoman, Hattie Jacques stiff and starchy with hidden depths. And of course there’s squeaky sexpot Barbara ‘Peggy Mitchell’ Windsor. The Carry Ons were part of a tradition The association of individual actors of British filmmaking that had its roots with broad archetypal roles is very typical of music hall. It’s also an ideal in music-hall comedy – populist and opportunity for a composer to pull satirical, a little bit saucy, but in the out his leitmotif-filled box of tricks. Take, for example, the theme for end good-hearted and sentimental Hattie Jacques’ school matron in Carry

27 On Camping (1969), a short march On Henry (1971) incorporates a jazz only just beginning to enjoy foreign for low strings and woodwinds that version of ‘Greensleeves’, just as Carry holidays – and surprisingly musically emphasises both the character’s size On Loving (1970) does with Wagner’s accurate, but again performed with and her buttoned-up pomposity. Or ‘Bridal Chorus’. What do all these a very British orchestral sensibility. Sid’s short guitar theme in Carry On pieces of music have in common? Rogers often used a technique that Matron (1972), spare, stealthily up-to- They’re well known, traditional – and we sometimes refer to as ‘Mickey no-good – just like his character. most importantly out of copyright! Mousing’: following the action on Some of his quotations were screen with a suitable musical or sound Stylistic Pastiches and more subtle. Rogers’ scene-setting effect. Take for example his frantic Quotations music for Carry On Doctor (1967), use of percussion, strings and twangy with its sweeping strings and stately guitar soundtracking Dr Nookey’s Like almost every film composer pace, gently evokes the feel of Jerry drunken rampage in Carry On Again who ever put pen to paper, Rogers Goldsmith’s theme for long-running Doctor (1969). More bluntly, he’d often would have been under time pressure TV show Dr Kildare, hugely popular in use a musical sound effect such a slide to get his music written, culminating the UK, with which viewers would have whistle, a timpani glissando or even in a two-day recording session been very familiar. (It’s obviously no a bulb horn to match the onscreen for each movie at Anvil Studios in coincidence that Jim Dale’s character in action. My favourite example is a door Buckinghamshire (which would begin Carry On Doctor is called Dr Kilmore.) slamming on Sid’s nose in Carry On with a tot of scotch all round). Partly Rogers was also frequently called Abroad (1972) – the door bounces due to the films’ fast turnaround times, upon to provide musical pastiches, and Rogers puts in a perfectly timed and partially because of the cultural double-honk for good measure. connotations he could quickly make, for example in Carry On up the Khyber he often used interpretations of pre- (1968), where sections of the music carry a generic ‘Eastern’ feel – without The Last Years existing songs in his Carry On scores. actually using any Indian musical Carry On Camping’s theme is based As the series tumbled into the techniques or instruments. Similarly, around ‘One Man Went to Mow’ (or is 1970s it found itself somewhat lost, his theme music for Carry On Abroad it ‘One More Day To Go?’), and Carry uncharacteristically and unpopularly on is a whistle-stop tour through broad the wrong side of the labour relations On ... Convenience (1971) has great examples of the music of several old argument, and impotently railing fun with the slightly coarser version of European countries, charming and against second-wave feminism and ‘What Can The Matter Be’ (‘Three old exotic – particularly for audiences so-called ‘political correctness’. The ladies locked in the lavatory!’) Carry

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Carry on Camping (1969) cast’s increasing age caused problems loved British entertainment – without too – the producers seemed unable descending ever-deeper into a spiral to decide if Sid should still be chasing of self-referential irony. Time had ever-younger women, or adopting finally caught up with the Carry Ons. a more avuncular role. Music-wise it But all these years later, you’ll still find might have been tempting to spice Sid and Co all over the TV schedules, things up with some psychedelic long after they were knocked off the rock for the hip youngsters; but the cinema screen, and long after their producers had already made their coarser imitators ended up in the feelings on that quite clear, giving the bargain VHS bin. Because even if the beautiful people short shrift in Carry On jokes were third-hand and the plots Camping, in which the gang dress up as paper-thin, the films have a warm, unlikely hippies to disrupt an outdoor timeless charm that has survived rave-up. If the times were a-changing, it intact. And as we listen, the nostalgia wasn’t going to happen on Sid’s watch. for a Britain that might once have So the films stuck to the same existed, as embodied in the evocative musical formula into the mid-70s. scores of Eric Rogers and Bruce Montgomery, now belongs to us. By that point the Carry Ons were FROM THE ARCHIVE being challenged by a string of more Film Music History, MM7 licentious, poppier movies, with Christopher Budd is a freelance writer, The Modern similar knockabout antics, but rather music teacher, composer and bassist, who Media composer, MM8 less charm. Unsure whether to take writes regularly on music for MediaMag. Sound and the Cinema – the brakes (and clothes) off or to fall Walter Murch, MM21 back on their original values of more family-oriented fun with a cast much- loved but now well into middle age, the Carry Ons withered and died. Once jauntily nostalgic, their music could no longer support the weight of the status they once had – as signifiers for a certain type of much-

29 30 here was a time not too long people will fork out to see the films. Like Hollywood’s very ago when Marvel Studios didn’t Before Marvel hit their stride with own version of the Big make billion dollar movies, and Iron Man, DC had already cashed in Bang, a thousand new the idea of a superhero on comic book heroes Superman cinematic universes ensemble movie featuring the and Batman as they were turned into are springing up all likes of Captain America, Iron mostly successful cinematic outings. around blockbuster Man and Thor was ridiculous. People cinema at the moment. barely even knew who Iron Man was The Birth of the Marvel Leading the way are before 2008, and Robert Downey Jr was Universe Marvel who are taking a Hollywood has-been whose talents had been overshadowed by countless When Marvel Studios stopped intertextuality to a arrests. Marvel had been making farming out their characters to other whole new level with studios like Sony and 20th Century comics since the 1960s when The their comics, films and Fox to develop into movies, they went Fantastic Four were first introduced; but into production on their own films, TV shows all feeding their first forays into filmmaking came starting with Iron Man in 2008. Kevin into one massive much later. Throughout the 80s and Feige became the President of Marvel multimedia universe. early 90s, Marvel would sell the rights Studios in 2007 and his plan to make Pete Turner enters to some of their characters in order to the wormhole... let others make the films for them. Iron Man faithful to the comic book originals meant that fans of the comics Howard the Duck (1986), The Punisher would be impressed. But the inspired (1989) and Captain America (1990), casting of Robert Downey Jr and witty amongst others, were not successful scripting by a team of writers meant and did not bode well for the future of that this movie would reach beyond Marvel movies. Characters such as the so-called comic-book geeks. More X-Men and The Fantastic Four still reside importantly, the film introduced the at other studios, with varying levels of now standard Marvel post-credits success, but none have had the same sting in which Samuel L Jackson tells impact as the films made by Marvel Iron Man’s alter-ego Tony Stark: Studios themselves. Since the release of Iron Man, you think you’re the only Marvel have been building the Marvel superhero in the world? Mr Stark, Cinematic Universe (MCU) which is you’ve become a part of a bigger universe, you just don’t know it yet... I’m here to talk to you Cinematic universes are Hollywood’s new about the Avenger initiative. byword for minimising risk. If a product is In that moment, Marvel Studios didn’t merely ensure people would selling well, building a cinematic universe sit through the entire credits of every means sequels, spin-offs and convergence. future Marvel movie; they made sure that people knew there would now expanding into television and be a sequel, and that Marvel had an beyond. Marvel have taken many even longer game-plan that would risks in the past but their future eventually lead to the Avengers movie. looks very promising as they have In what would become a steady taken intertextuality to new heights, move towards the conglomeration ensuring that none of their fans can of the movie industry, the formerly afford to miss any new entry into the independent Marvel Studios needed MCU. Hollywood has always loved a more backing and more financial pre-existing (or pre-sold) property; security, so they became a part of it reduces the risk of spending huge the much bigger and much wealthier amounts on making a film and then Disney Corporation. Disney bought discovering there is no audience keen Marvel for $4b in 2009, no doubt to see it. From Gone With the Wind, impressed with Marvel President Kevin Jaws and The Godfather, right through Feige’s vision of a Marvel Cinematic to 50 Shades of Grey, Hollywood has Universe that would capitalise on a always enjoyed adapting bestselling huge range of pre-existing properties books in order to (almost) guarantee with a proven fan-base. Feige was

31 integral to ensuring that the Marvel movies stuck close to the comics; and he also recruited left-field, but extremely smart choices for directors. Kenneth Branagh came on board for the Shakespearean Thor, Shane Black for Iron Man 3 and James Gunn for Guardians of the Galaxy. None of these men had any experience directing full-blown effects-heavy blockbusters, but all had acting and writing experience. All of them made witty and incredibly popular movies, with Iron Man 3 breaking records and making it into the top 10 films of all time. These directors with distinct voices found themselves working within the studio system, under a President who not only had each individual film to think about, but an entire universe to build. Each film had to slot into place alongside the others, leading to the inevitable Avengers Assemble. Each film came loaded with Easter eggs for fans to spot the intertextual references, and the post-credits stings promised more and more from the MCU. Thanos, the purple- headed alien played by Josh Brolin who appears in the post-credits sting from The Avengers in 2012 won’t even emerge as the villain until The Avengers: Infinity War, the first part of which is due in 2018! So, for the first time in cinematic

history not only do fans know what Photo Stock 12 / Alamy © Photos films they will be getting from a studio six or seven years into the future, but they are being prepared for it long in For the first time in cinematic history, fans advance. Forget teaser trailers: post- credits stings are the new way to get know what films they will be getting from a fan anticipation through the roof. studio six or seven years into the future, and The interesting implication of this is that while many will criticise they are being prepared for it long in advance. Hollywood for its lack of risk-taking, and for endlessly churning out superhero where corruption and betrayal were characters that got people interested smackdowns, it could be argued that the downfall of S.H.I.E.L.D., the heroes in the comics, but in the movies, the these films are encouraging extremely of the Avengers will soon be finding stars are equally, if not more, important. active spectatorship. Like American themselves on opposite sides in Captain Robert Downey Jr is reported to have Quality Television, Marvel are telling America: Civil War, further complicating made around $50m for his part in The stories over hours and hours in their matters and forcing fans to choose Avengers, and always gets a percentage series of films. The films are loaded with their allegiances and consider some of the profits in his contract. Back in the intertextual references to other films, potentially morally complex ideas. early days of Hollywood, stars had little and even crossing over with Marvel’s power over what they made or how television shows. What’s more, they The Cost of Success much they were paid, because their are beginning to become increasingly contracts to work for particular studios Of course, making mega-stars out complex as the heroes and villains are gave the studios all of the power in of the likes of Robert Downey Jr, Chris becoming less clear-cut. Beginning the relationships. The contracts for Evans and Chris Hemsworth comes with Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Marvel stars are interesting as they with a hefty price tag. It might be the

32 differ from star to star. The up-and- short films go straight onto Blu-rays coming stars of the MCU are tied in of some of the Marvel features, and for longer, while old hands like Robert resulted in the development of Marvel Downey Jr and Scarlet Johansson TV shows Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and are working on a movie-to-movie Agent Carter. The complex interplay basis. Some of the stars such as between formats, characters and Sebastian Stan (The Winter Soldier) ongoing storylines is becoming more and Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury) are and more challenging to part-time tied in for as many as nine films. viewers. It will be interesting to see if However, while you may not hear this begins to alienate audiences who the Marvel stars complaining about feel out of the loop, or whether casual the studio, there have been rumblings fans will be able to keep up without that all may not be right behind- watching everything Marvel produce. the-scenes at the MCU. The most infamous incident involved Shaun What’s Next? of the Dead and Hot Fuzz director One thing is for sure; Marvel are Convergence means getting fans on Edgar Wright, who had spent almost not resting on their billions, and are board and keeping them hooked, a decade developing the Ant-Man already lining up their next phase, with making them feel like active spectators movie with Marvel, only to walk from all-new heroes such as Black Panther, who can pick up on all the references, the project just before filming began The Inhumans and Doctor Strange Easter eggs and intertextuality that is citing ‘differences in their visions on the way. Even more depressing/ flowing through the cycle of films. of the film’. The general consensus exciting (depending on your point In an age where blockbusters is that Wright was too much of an of view or fandom) is the legacy can cost $200-300m to make, there individual auteur to fit with Marvel’s of the success of the MCU. Other has to be a guarantee of a huge increasingly streamlined vision for Hollywood studios are now falling audience; and cinematic universes the MCU, and one rewrite too many over themselves to create cinematic help build a loyal fanbase which caused Wright to exit his passion universes full of interconnected films could potentially grow film after film, project. Joss Whedon, the director of and characters which might command much as the Fast & Furious films have both Avengers films, tweeted a photo the same level of loyal fans. DC are grown into a billion dollar franchise of himself giving a disappointed most obviously attempting to build by bringing in more and more Cornetto salute to the departed a universe around the Justice League characters from the history of the six director – a very risky move for such and Suicide Squad, while 20th Century sequels. Godfather of the modern an integral cog in making the MCU Fox are still desperate to create a blockbuster Steven Spielberg has just come to life. But it was also a move universe full of stand-alone films declared that he thinks that one day that hinted that Whedon felt a sense for various members of the X-Men there will be a time when the of solidarity with his fellow writer/ alongside the main franchise. superhero movie goes the way director in the face of the monolithic It’s not all superheroes though, of the Western. Marvel world-building project. with a team of writers brought in to map out ‘a long-constructed plot for If that is the case, then be prepared The Cinematic Universe multiple directly-connected sequel for the end of the cinematic universe as Goes Multimedia films to add to the Transformers film we now know it. series’. Sounds exhausting! Similarly, the However, the billion dollar successes of the MCU films have proved that director of the all-female Ghostbusters Pete Turner is a Lecturer at Oxford Brookes Feige and his collaborators are pleasing reboot has confirmed that Sony University. His book on The Blair Witch Project is out now. the fans, and the result has been have plans to make a Ghostbusters Marvel’s expansion into a Multimedia cinematic universe, not to mention Universe. New and old fans alike now the expanding Star Wars cinematic have to keep up with TV shows, short universe, which will include sequels films, videogames and features to gain starting with Episode VII and annual ultimate geek-cred and to understand spin-off anthology instalments. all the intertextual references presented FROM THE ARCHIVE in all formats. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. tied Risk-minimisers It’s a Marvel-lous World, MM10 in carefully with Thor: The Dark World Cinematic universes are Hollywood’s while Daredevil, the first of Marvel’s new byword for minimising risk. If Heroes for all Time, MM31 four new Netflix exclusive series, will a product is selling well, building Is Hollywood share at least one character with Agents a cinematic universe means Out of Ideas, MM44 of S.H.I.E.L.D. The Marvel One-Shot sequels, spin-offs and convergence.

33 The Real-world Themes behind Humans

hannel 4’s eight-part sci-fi drama series Humans first broadcast at 9pm on Sunday 14th June 2015 to 4m viewers. A co-production with AMC (Breaking Bad, Mad Men) and Kudos (Spooks, Utopia, Broadchurch), it is a remake of the Swedish Real Humans. The show explores the very contemporary fear of technological dependence and resurrects a familiar theme in film and TV: what does it mean to be human? Siobhan Flint unpicks the Set in a parallel present where technological contemporary fears about advancement has enabled humans to purchase technology, artificial intelligence, their very own and disturbingly life-like ‘synths’ and morality in Channel 4’s who act as domestic servants for their time- brilliantly marketed Humans. poor owners, the multi-channel marketing campaign in the build-up to the first episode left audiences desperate to see the show and exploited some very clever and creative

34 show. However, what is particularly creative is the level of detail on the Persona Synthetics website. We are told that we can take ‘Sally’ on holiday with us by purchasing a synth passport; there is a link to an article in The Huffington Post entitled, ‘Why I Don’t Fear Artificial Intelligence’; and an adults-only section which invites us to speak to one of their Synth Matchmakers about delectable adult options or to pick up a leaflet in-store. Reinforcing some sense of verisimilitude around the technology is an article that explains: Meeting a new synth is a crucial moment for your children. Our homecare support makes the bonding process seamless. Click on any of the links at the bottom of the site

With permission of [email protected] Channel 4 images permission of [email protected] With for company information, careers, returning your synth or ordering replacement limbs, and you are immediately transported to the Channel 4 website where you can watch the gripping trailer for the techniques. In May, Channel 4 broadcast an show and find out more. This is a really good advert for ‘Persona Synthetics’ during the first ad example of a campaign that fully exploits digital break of Prometheus. The advert featured ‘Sally’ technologies to create a context for the show. who is shown interacting with her new family. As a new generation synthetic model she is So What’s to Study in Humans? faster, stronger and more capable… Many sci-fi texts explore issues which closer to humans than ever before. seem very much part of a distant future. Humans is a particularly interesting text to The advert made no reference to the TV explore from both a genre and narrative show, and caused a stir on Twitter, leaving perspective – in a not-so distant future. some viewers a little disturbed and wondering The first episode opens with a close up of a whether technology had really gone this far. bright green eye – something that distinguishes This was not unlike the marketing campaign the synth from the human. This is followed by a for the iconic HBO series Six Feet Under (2001- series of long shots inside the ‘Persona Synthetics’ 2005), which was trailed through a series of warehouse, where the camera pans across and mysterious advertisements for a fictional funeral hovers above row upon row of perfectly-formed parlour and related accessories – but with an androids. We watch as a human worker wheels added interactive twist. Listings for ‘Sally’ and another one out on a trolley to an eagerly ‘Charlie’ appeared on eBay and a shop front for waiting customer. The title sequence combines a new store for ‘Persona Synthetics’ appeared iconography that suggests the alignment of on London’s Regent Street. It featured a pair human and android: a petri dish containing of 2m-tall synth models, who with the aid multiplying cells and close-up images of skin of Microsoft Kinnect technology, interacted tissue are juxtaposed with images of robots with passers-by and allowed them to create and technology, where the advancement their own synth using interactive screens. of science and technology proposes to the The website www.personasynthetics. viewer that this isn’t such a distant dream. com invites us to choose from two The audience are introduced to Joseph configurations (Sally or Charlie) in order to Hawkins, a father of three who wants some ...experience the new generation domestic help in the absence of his workaholic Synthetic Human from Persona Synthetics. or (perhaps) disaffected wife Laura. He finds Not just an appliance but a deeply this in the form of ‘uniquely styled one-of- personal lifestyle choice, your synth a-kind’ family android ‘Anita’. Of course, the is the help you’ve always wanted. purchase of ‘Anita’ is a controversial one. Laura is unhappy with the new and attractive domestic The website features a link to the Twitter servant, insisting, ’we don’t need one’. Although page (#humans) for more information on the Joe has been offered a ’30-days return no

35 being policed by the Special Technologies Task Force. This element of the narrative reinforces the idea that synths are seen as products, gadgets with owners, rather than conscious beings that are responsible for their own actions. Built-in Obsolescence An interesting narrative strand in the episode involves the idea of emotional attachment to a synth, where Dr George Millican (William Hurt) cannot bear to lose his 6-year-old synth ‘Odi’ because ‘she’ is the one thing that preserves the memory of his late wife, despite the NHS insisting that he accepts an upgrade. Of course, the idea of ‘terminating’ or ‘recycling’ something that appears With permission of [email protected] permission of [email protected] With Channel 4 images to be so close to the human form because it no longer works to full capacity does raise the issue of us living in a disposable ‘throwaway’ society where little is valued and the next technological questions asked’ guarantee, he already asserts must-have upgrade is always on the horizon. that he won’t be returning her, insisting: In the second episode, Dr Millican is at the mercy I didn’t buy Anita to replace you... of his new matron-like synth who, far from offering I bought her to get you back. him independence and freedom, behaves like an Orwellian jailor. He is constantly under her watchful The narrative and representation of the eye, whilst his beloved but obsolete Odi is confined family also evokes some sense of middle- to the garden shed. This narrative suggests that class unease. The synths become a projection technological advancement may disable humanity of status. ‘That’s a really posh one’, remarks rather than enable it; we are indeed at the mercy Joe to his children as they watch a female of technology. There is an uncomfortable scene synth prepare dinner at the showroom. of sexual exploitation where the synths are seen Synths versus Humans? working as prostitutes in a brothel for the pleasure of humans. One customer requests that the synth The androids have been developed to make acts ‘young and scared’. As an audience we find people feel less like machines. However, as the ourselves aligned with technology here. The human episode unfolds, we realise that they make us is very much the monster in this scene, and when question our purpose. We see them as ticket he is murdered by the synth it seems justified. inspectors, litter collectors, retail assistants. They The eerie soundtrack by Cristobal Tapia de Veer are efficient, and can do any of the jobs that we (Utopia) interspersed throughout the narrative can. Thus, humans become dependent on synth makes it all the more unsettling. Like many texts labour; and as they are upgraded and constantly that explore the relationship between human improved we become inferior to them and resent and machine, the human is ultimately flawed, them. The narrative evokes some of the fears raised and represented as having little moral compass. by Professor Stephen Hawking, who believes that The development of full artificial intelligence So Why Study Humans? could spell the end of the human race. It In an age when we are becoming more would take off on its own, and re-design and more dependent on technology, Humans itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, considers some real contemporary fears about our who are limited by slow biological evolution, engagement with artificial intelligence, and how couldn’t compete, and would be superseded. it might both enable and disempower humanity. Certainly we learn that Anita is one of a The political and moral consequence of group of renegade synths who, before being creating phenomena that appear so human but reprogrammed and purchased by Joe, has are in fact mechanical is convincingly explored, developed a sense of consciousness. We see particularly in Episode 4. Here, Joe’s need to another renegade synth which has developed secretly activate Anita’s ‘adult mode’ and engage the capacity to lie. Interestingly, it is the owners in sexual activity, coupled with a party scene in of the synths who are deemed responsible for which a teenage boy wants to deactivate the their actions, requiring operating licences and family synth and ‘have a go on her’, makes for

36 Humans (C4) L-R Sophie Hawkins (Pixie Davies) and Anita (Gemma Chan) from Chan) from and Anita (Gemma Davies) Sophie Hawkins (Pixie L-R 4 images Willie/Kudos/Channel with permission © Des Kudos,

uncomfortable viewing. It raises an interesting moral debate about the treatment of the synths; Some might even read Humans but more importantly, the obvious analogy of how as an allegorical tale about humans ultimately treat each other in society. The scenes in the ‘Smash Clubs’ are reminiscent contemporary concerns over of those in AI and Fight Club. The WAP (We Are migration and refugees. People) group organise them as a political response to the threat synths pose to humanity. What becomes clear is that the real threat to humanity is not necessarily from the synths, but from humans themselves, who are unable to harness their emotions or desires in a rational or moral way. Furthermore, the scene in which the WAP spokesman speaks about the synths ‘taking their jobs’ offers some interesting parallels with current debates about immigration; some might even read Humans as an allegorical tale about contemporary concerns over migration and refugees. Many texts have previously explored the concept of artificial intelligence and the perils of technological advancement (Blade Runner, Stepford Wives, AI, Black Mirror, and so on). But perhaps in an age when we literally hold AI in the palm of our hands (think of iPhone’s Siri), the prospect of actually being able to purchase a ‘Sally’ or a ‘Charlie’ to fulfil our own selfish needs no longer seems like something from a sci-fi film. The reality of Sally or Charlie may be looming; but the real question addressed in this series is: would we want them? And, if so, how long would it take for technology to surpass us so that we become inferior to the machine and they become suitable replacements for real humans?

Siobhan Flint Teacher Film and Media Studies at Colchester Sixth Form College, and has written With permission of [email protected] Channel 4 images regularly for MediaMag.

37 38 39 Feminist Frequency and Anita Sarkeesian

You may not have heard of Anita Sarkeesian, but her voice, website and support for feminist media criticism have polarised opinion – and put her life at risk. Mark Ramey introduces the contentious debates around her work.

eminist Frequency is a not- for-profit, educational organisation providing comprehensive analyses of modern media from a critical perspective on societal issues such as race, gender, and sexuality. Creating publicly available and ad-free videos, Feminist Frequency encourages viewers to critically engage with mass media and provides resources for media makers to improve their works of fiction. If Media Studies ever needs a figurehead to represent it, I can think of no-one better than Canadian- American media critic and feminist Anita Sarkeesian – the founder and presenter of feministfrequency.com. She’s outspoken and brave enough to appeal to radical feminists and she’s

40 smart enough to engage the most erudite of academics. She is also as much despised as she is admired; and in Media Studies we love an underdog, especially one who has an MA in Social Political Thought which, given the current Government’s attitude, may soon be a very rarefied interest. Sadly, however, Sarkeesian is not a figurehead despite her considerable on-line following. And what depresses me, and makes me want to write this article, is that she is not even admired by the students I teach. Their figurehead is more Kim Kardashian than Anita dry subject of feminist media criticism, ‘portrayal of masculine identities in Sarkeesian – and that’s a real shame. focusing on video analyses and, in games’. This projected field of research The reasons why Sarkeesian is treated terms of YouTube hits and the way her is clearly intended to address claims by with a cool disregard amongst UK work is now used in the classroom, she her (frequently hostile) critics that her students (or mine at least) and with has been very successful. Sarkeesian’s feminist agenda focuses solely on the vehement and aggressive contempt videos analyse popular culture from negative and is also highly selective by fellow North Americans can, I think, a feminist standpoint and, in 2011, in its use of illustrative examples. be boiled down to the following: she created the video series Tropes vs It was the online critical reaction 1. Sarkeesian threatens men Women, examining, amongst other to the Kickstarter campaign, and because she is attractive and issues, the common representations the subsequent videos produced, smart and dares to be critical of of women in Science Fiction. that propelled Sarkeesian into the patriarchy in popular culture; In 2012, buoyed by the success of this mainstream media, where both her 2. Sarkeesian threatens series, Sarkeesian began a Kickstarter cause and her misogynistic critics women because she dares campaign to fund a further series received widespread attention. to be critical of men. of short videos examining gender Sarkeesian herself writes that her work, Before exploring these points tropes in video games. She reached focuses on deconstructing further, let’s give some context: her funding goal of $6,000 within 24 the stereotypes and tropes what’s the fuss about? hours. The first video in the Tropes vs associated with women Women in Video Games series, Damsels in popular culture as well Who is Anita Sarkeesian? in Distress: Part 1, was released in 2013, as highlighting issues and currently totals nearly 2.5m hits – Sarkeesian launched her website surrounding the targeted by far Sarkeesian’s most accessed video. harassment of women in Feminist Frequency in 2009 whilst In January 2015, she announced she online and gaming spaces. a student at York University (USA) on was planning two new video series an MA course. She created the site in tackling both the ‘positive portrayal an effort to make accessible the often of women in video games’ and the All images with Anita Sarkeesian (http://feministfrequency.com/)

41 Such has been Sarkeesian’s meteoric success that she is currently sitting in Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people’(April 2015) and appeared in Cosmopolitan’s list of 50 of the most fascinating people on the internet (May 2015). Responding to the Time accolade Sarkeesian said: It’s gratifying to see Feminist Frequency’s educational media criticism work recognised in this way [and] I’m encouraged that our video series on the portrayal of women in video games is starting to have a tangible impact on the gaming industry at large. This honour also highlights the importance of cultural and media criticism in promoting gender equity. But despite her mainstream and online success, it is sadly the negative responses to Sarkeesian’s work that have come to define her. As she herself noted in an interview in Bloomberg Business, post videos, it’s a consideration. Sarkeesian’s ‘background radiation’ must Harassment is the background It affects where I go, and how I feel like; only a victim of trolling or a radiation of my life. behave, and how I feel walking cybermob attack could appreciate how down the street every day. damaging and frightening it must be. Indeed part of the issue is the anonymity This was not her first experience of Harassment and Death provided by online chatter and comment. harassment. Back in 2012, when her Threats Cowards are empowered when made Kickstarter campaign first started, she invisible, and when given a voice that The most striking example of this posted screen grabs of some comments. can cross continents in a second, the ‘background radiation’ took place in This in turn drove more comments bile comes pouring out. However, October 2014, just before Sarkeesian was and, surprisingly, more donations. The the many poisonous and obscene to give a speech at Utah State University, campaign ultimately raised a staggering responses to Sarkeesian suggest a darker where she had been invited to give a talk $158,922 from 6,968 backers during the truth: that a misogynistic patriarchy about sexism in the video game industry. 30 days it was open. Despite this level still remains a pervasive feature in The university received an anonymous of moral and financial support, some of mainstream culture. In 2015 how do email threatening, ‘the deadliest school the comments posted remain deeply people respond to a female academic shooting in American history.’ The emailer unsettling, revealing the dark underbelly posing searching questions about went on to brag that, ‘I will write my of the unreconstructed male psyche: patriarchy’s representation of women manifesto in her [Sarkeesian’s] spilled I hate ovaries with brains big in video games? They threaten to rape blood, and you will all bear witness enough to post videos. her and send her back to the slavery to what feminist lies and poison have of domesticity. So much for progress. been done to the men of America.’ Fuck you feminist fucks, you On her website Sarkeesian indicates The authorities were not unduly already have equality. In fact you the rationale for such harassment: alarmed, arguing she was often the have better shit than most males, target of hoaxers. But after learning The ultimate goal of this be glad what you got bitch that Utah’s gun laws prevented behaviour is to try and screening for weapons, Sarkeesian and finally, intimidate, scare and silence understandably cancelled her talk: Get back in the kitchen, if you hate women by creating an online environment that is too hostile, Harassment… is a factor in every it, go make your own games. toxic and disturbing to endure. decision I make. Any time I tweet Such virulence. Such resentment something, or make a post, I’m and fear. Such quotes suggest what So now let’s return to my always thinking about it. When I earlier suggestions that:

42 1. Sarkeesian threatens men photoshoot of Kim’s sculpted arse times pathetic, at other times terrifying. because she is attractive and which was supposed to ‘break’ the Two Twitter comments illustrate smart and dares to be critical of internet? Or her recent book of this background of hostility and patriarchy in popular culture; selfies? For Sarkeesian, to speak out hate, culled from hundreds of such 2. Sarkeesian threatens against men is to be labelled a man- examples on Feminist Frequency’s women because she dares hater – and few young women want Twitter feed. The first (from ‘Devious’, to be critical of men. that albatross around their necks. on January 21st 2015) summarises Sarkeesian may be wrong, the anxieties of male patriarchy when Media Critic or Man-hater? academically limited, or a populist a smart woman dares to speak out: with an ill-conceived feminist agenda. The first point is, of course, Fucking bitch, you don’t But equally she may be right, or closer subjective, and irrelevant from a deserve rights, feminists need to the truth than many of her critics feminist perspective – Sarkeesian’s to go to jail for existing. realise. The point is that she has an looks should not be used to determine effective voice, a slick media presence, The second, further down the her worth. However, it is perhaps and she talks with passion and insight. intellectual ladder (‘Staache’ January precisely for this reason that she She attacks social systems and media 25th 2015) is more typical of the has so enraged many men. She is institutions and narrative tropes; but regular attacks on Sarkeesian: the poster girl who won’t behave she does not attack people. However, and submit to the objectification I’m going to come to your the most vocal and whinging of her expected of her. Not only that, but house and violently rape you critics do just that – committing a she has entered and critiqued the in front of your family. fundamental fallacy of critical thinking male world of video gaming, where which argues that a view is wrong In MediaMag 51 I wrote about the loyalty to product and platform can because the person is wrong. verge on the obsessional. In terms Saudi Arabian film Wadjda. A character If Sarkeesian is wrong because she of Freudian analysis, Sarkeesian is a in the film, attempting to silent a noisy is a woman, then our culture is wrong threat to the fragile male ego because female child, quotes a Saudi saying: because it still sees women as inferior. she stirs the libidinous Id and at the A woman’s voice It is hard to believe that it is now nearly same time tries to lay down the law. is her nakedness. 90 years since women aged over 21 The second point highlights the were allowed to vote in the UK. If In a culture where the full length problem of an overly sexualised culture patriarchy is slowly withering, as many black robe or ‘abaya’ is the public where women like Kim Kardashian are post-feminists would suggest, then at norm for women, ‘nakedness’ can idolised for their lavish materialistic least for the likes of Sarkeesian it can’t also be read as ‘shame’. Saudi Arabia lifestyle, their narcissism and the wither fast enough. Until then, her is virtually bottom of the Gender fetishisation of their own bodies. This ‘background radiation’ must remain Inequality List. In Saudi, women have is something which they themselves one of misogynistic harassment – at no voice. The case of Anita Sarkeesian’s actively endorse – remember the online harassment suggests that when women in the West do speak out, they face similar struggles.

Mark Ramey teaches Film and Media Studies at Collyer’s College, Horsham, East Sussex.

REFERENCES www.feministfrequency.com https://www.youtube.com/ user/feministfrequency

FROM THE ARCHIVE Wadjda, MM51

43 When a marketing campaign goes wrong

Can an ad campaign ever really backfire? Surely anything that brings large numbers of eyeballs to advertisers must be good news? Or can a badly devised campaign prove detrimental to a brand’s reputation? Emma Calway investigates. he ‘Are You Beach Body Ready?’ campaign launched by Protein World this spring caused a real stir amongst the media and consumers. Launched in Spring 2015 on London Underground, the PR team were clearly courting the female market (19-30) into looking their best for the beach this summer. The advert – featuring a tanned, blonde female in a full-frontal pose – generated so much controversy that in July 2015 the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority waded in: Although we understood the claim, ‘Are you beach body ready?’ invited readers to think about their figures, we did not consider the image of the model would shame women who had different body shapes into believing they needed to take a slimming supplement to feel confident wearing swimwear in public. For that reason, we concluded

© Tara Costello, with permission Costello, Tara © the ad was not irresponsible. The advert was arguably aimed first and foremost at the male gaze (an interesting way to get the attention of both sexes) but the question – and the subsequent advertising message – was definitely designed for women.

44 With permission of Protein World permission of Protein With

Messages and Values ‘I agree that ALL bodies are ‘beach body ready’. Skinny, curvy, muscular, petite, The model looks simultaneously aggressive tall, short, young and old. Confidence is and seductive. The bold, black font accentuates beautiful no matter what size you are.... this aggressive stance. The yellow and Your reflection doesn’t define your worth.’ black contrast is reminiscent of a wasp; Huffington Post, 2015 the colours have been chosen on purpose both to attract your attention, and to warn Renee’s words would have been carefully you – especially when seen in the context selected by Protein World’s PR. The implications of the drab underground setting. The yellow of what she says, however, are at odds with background and bikini suggests sand. the actual content of the adverts, and the To the right hand side The Weight Loss company’s response on social media. A further Collection further amplifies the subtext of this advert featuring the same model also uses question – basically: are you thin enough to hit the female body as sexually enticing and an the beach? The advert attracted much criticism example of how a woman’s body should be. for playing on female consumers’ insecurities. The model’s pose, arms above her head, can Its message is clear: if you use our weight loss be seen as confident, even perhaps a sexual supplements you too can look like this. And come-on; but it could also, cleverly, be read as it seems that plenty of women are willing a beach pose if the model was lying down. (You to pay £62 in the hope of transformation. can see a version of this advert on page 47.) Protein World have been quick to put Richard Staveley, head of global marketing for down criticism and claim that their campaign Protein World, was unrepentant, commenting, is about health, rather than just looking We absolutely have no intention of good. Note the words by the model and removing the adverts because of also the words used to describe her: a minority making a lot of noise... Renee Somerfield – the 23-year-old We now run Britain’s largest protein vegan model who appeared in the facility, selling our products in over adverts – told the Huffington Post: 50 countries to more than 300,000

45 ‘Beach Body Ready’ Protein World advert protest in London, 2nd May 2015 ‘Beach Images Association Dario Earl / Demotix Demotix/Press

customers. Most of them are women. Institutions and the Use of Social How could we possibly be sexist? Media Audiences One aim of a marketing campaign is to get people talking. Protein World have certainly Consumers chose to disagree though, as managed that – but at what cost? How many shown by the sticker placed on the model’s people will now boycott Protein World’s stomach (page 47). When people began to products? On the other hand, it has now made campaign against the poster’s sexist portrayal, the whole world familiar with the brand – a change.org petition signed by 71,000 had you heard of it before the campaign? urged the ASA to take the adverts down. Although the campaign caused so much Some protesters responded visually by posing offence in the UK it was then rolled out in the next to the advert in their bikinis, to offer a US, where unsurprisingly it met with similar more realistic depiction of women’s bodies. opposition. Surely if Protein World had actually When angry consumers contacted Protein cared about upsetting its consumers, its US World, complaining about the campaign, the marketing department would have changed company’s Twitter response urged them to the advert? But they didn’t, suggesting ‘grow some balls’ – an interesting response for a that the marketing team behind this advert campaign supposedly directed at women. The knew exactly what they were doing. men behind the campaign seemed to find all the Let’s also look at the context of the campaign media uproar bizarre and the insinuation was in light of the resurgence of feminist debate that the great British public couldn’t take a joke. over the last few years. If this advert had appeared in the 1990s – the decade of lad culture, lads’ mags and feisty ladettes – would there have been as much of an uproar? A contrasting approach was represented by the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty – one of the most successful of the digital age. The campaign features real women with real bodies of all races and ages. Dove created an interactive Ad Makeover campaign that put women in charge of the advertisements, where they themselves

46 would choose what they saw as beautiful, not the advertisers. The campaign’s mission is to create a world where beauty is a source of confidence and not anxiety. More recently, in April 2013, Dove’s ‘Real Beauty Sketches’ had garnered more than 114m total YouTube views within one month of its release, making it the most viral ad of all time. The campaign employed an FBI-trained sketch artist to draw women twice – first based on their own self-perception, and then based on that of a stranger. The outcomes demonstrated that the strangers’ descriptions were both more attractive and more accurate than the women’s own perceptions, suggesting that women are often hyper-critical of their appearances, and unable to see their own beauty. The campaign resulted in upwards of four billion PR and

blogger media hits, and was much praised. World permission of Protein With Both these campaigns have become talking points, but for opposite reasons. And while Protein World may have caused outrage, anger and some boycotting, in terms of a marketing campaign it has worked like a dream. As the old saying goes: ‘There’s no such thing as bad publicity.’ But whether the Dove campaign has more longevity than the Protein World campaign – well, only time will tell.

Emma Calway works as a content writer for Ad Rank.

FROM THE ARCHIVE Does Pink Matter, MM42 With permission of Protein World permission of Protein With

Above: protein World ‘Beach Body’ advert Left: Dove © Unilever, with kind permission © Unilever,

47 Undergraduate Simon King summarises his experiences from the 2015 BFI Film Academy/NFTS residential filmmaking course, which, to misquote an old slogan, refreshes the parts other film courses cannot reach.

here are 168 film schools in Health and Safety, easily overlooked the world; and the National by non-professionals – for example, Film and Television School has what might be the risks involved in been rated the ‘World’s Best’ by working with a child actor, or animals? theT Guardian. Its graduates have been In all stages of filmmaking, teamwork multi-BAFTA and Oscar winning, and and communication are hugely the tutors are lead filmmakers. From important for the whole project to several thousand applicants, I was one run smoothly and efficiently, and of the lucky 66 students to earn a place particularly between your chosen at the BFI/NFTS Film Academy 2015, department and the director. Successful collaboration was essential for our teams to overcome the problems and each scene to ensure everyone was challenges we faced, of which time up to speed with any changes. I had (or lack thereof) was the biggest. Our become so familiar with the original group sometimes split off into smaller script that I found this extremely teams so we could focus on different useful, particularly in my editing role, responsibilities at the same time. as I was able to understand where any My production team was responsible emotional climaxes were to take place. for a film called The Last Birthday. Before production started, we During pre-production we needed a were grouped and trained in our framed photo of one of the lead actors, specialisations. As joint editors, ready for filming. Unfortunately, we we spent the day in the Edit Suites attending a two-day pre-residential, were unable to obtain this, and the learning AVID, an industry-standard followed by a 12-day residential course, actor was only available on the shoot editing software. We were paired during which we made a series of short days; so as our schedule left no time according to which film we were films produced to industry standard. I for a photo-shoot before filming, we working on, and given team-building was accepted to specialise in editing. problem-solved by using Photoshop. exercises. In one example, we pieced During the main residential at During our masterclasses we were a scene together using stock footage, NFTS, we students were put through reminded that everyone needs to stay and cut it in two different ways so the same developmental stages motivated, and focus on what had got that each version of the scene told you would experience in real-life us excited in the first place! You have a different story. The editing tutors filmmaking, including processes to be hard working and make the most were extremely helpful in teaching us such as Green Light Meetings, where of your time every day, so that the how to use the software, advising us you pitch your film idea to funders, stage is set for the next day’s shoot. of any effective techniques we could hoping the project will be approved Our team leader, Michelle Eastwood, use, and answering any questions or and financed. These meetings also ran through the evolving script at queries straightaway, which was great. address crucial logistical issues such as each team meeting, breaking down

48 Production Etiquette not to overcomplicate things. Try and and their impact on the audience. think of the simplest way to tell a story. It is exciting to see alumni from During production, set etiquette This may mean removing anything the NFTS getting top TV and film proved to be very important. Being that is not essential to the plot; quality jobs (for example, Guardians of the quiet on set allowed everyone to is more important than quantity. Galaxy), and the number of star stay calm, and not be overwhelmed graduates. Sir Michael Caine was a with the tasks ahead of us. It was very The Learning Process graduate of NFTS, as was Roger Deakin important to know our roles, and what, where and when we could contribute. So what made my BFI/NFTS – cinematographer on Shawshank For example, as one of two editors experience so different from anything Redemption and Skyfall, he was on set, our roles were to be in charge else I’ve learned to date? Well, firstly nominated for 12 Oscars (the record!). of continuity. However, because of we gained invaluable access to the The NFTS runs more post-production the small size of our crew, we had to NFTS TV and film studios and their courses than anywhere else, and this compromise by helping out wherever state-of-the-art equipment. We met is something that hugely appeals to we could, which for me included prestigious industry professionals such me as an editor. In the future, as a working as a gaffer and a general as Steven Moffat (writer of Doctor Who postgraduate, I hope to attend NFTS assistant. I learned that it’s important to and Sherlock) and his partner, Sherlock full time. I would love to become yet support people when they get things producer, Sue Virtue, and actor, writer another one of their successful alumni, wrong, as we needed to maintain one and director Noel Clarke (credits making it in the industry and getting another’s morale. It has been said include Kidulthood, Adulthood, Doctor top TV and film editing roles – and if I’m successful enough, obtaining a BAFTA! that students learn 50% from each Who and Star Trek: Into Darkness). Our My whole experience of film school other, so chemistry and teamwork are masterclasses also included talks from was amazing, and really clarified essential if you are going to succeed. Justine Wright (editor of The Last King what I want to do in the future. I have During the production stages, we of Scotland), Jake S. Wynne (writer/ were advised to pay attention to what learned a huge amount in all areas of director/editor), documentary-maker filmmaking, way beyond my chosen comes through both the lens and the Kim Longinotto, and many BAFTA- microphone; sound is 50% of the film, role of editing. I now realise the winning NFTS graduates. During the industry expects you to ‘do your time’ and we should only use what we need masterclasses we were recommended and have. I learned not to be shy about before giving you a big role, so patience reading about and from the industry is essential. I was motivated to take on asking questions, as others might – for example In the Blink of an well be wondering the same thing. I new challenges, and not to fear failure. Eye, transcribed from a lecture by learned that any questions or problems In short, I would highly recommend celebrated film editor Walter Murch – should be filtered through the 1st AD the BFI/NFTS Film Academy to anyone and industry advice from producers (assistant director), to allow the director who is serious about a career in film. and from Total Film magazine. to focus on the actor’s performances. During post-production it is essential We watched Living in Oblivion (Tom DiCillo, 1995), about a low-budget Simon King is an undergraduate studying for the editor to understand what Literature and Film at Southampton film crew who committed classic the director wants to see produced, University. and where in the script the mood production mistakes and where changes appear. This helps to piece everything that could go wrong on together the footage in a way that set actually did. We saw clips from complements the character and films shot in different styles and plot development, ending in a genres. For instance, Hurt Locker was stronger film. During one masterclass, a fiction film shot like a documentary, cinematographer Oliver Stapleton while Hitchcock’s Rope was filmed explained we should consider the in a one-shot take. We studied the script as ‘a guide, not a Bible.’ It’s best processes involved in creating these,

49 What’s the point of the Movie Awards Corridor?

he 2015 awards season So it ends again for ended on February another year – all 22nd 2015 in Los the sound and fury, Angeles. The big speculation and Oscars winner was Alejandro Gonzalez argument, runners Inarritu’s feverish and experimental and riders, sure Birdman, which won Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay and things and dark Cinematography. It beat Richard horses. Jonathan Linklater’s Boyhood and Wes Anderson’s Nunns wonders Grand Budapest Hotel which also whether movie won in the (less showy) technical Photo Stock / Alamy Ltd Press © Pictorial awards really matter. categories such as Best Original The Theory of Score and Best Production Design. Everything The top awards had seemed totally unpredictable right up to the finishing So what does it all mean, the topsy- post; who would finally step up to the turvy, contradictory annual season plate and sweep the board? It was of the movie awards? Does it really clearly the most open field for years matter? Who runs them? Who benefits? (OK, no more sporting metaphors Who votes for the winners? What I promise!). Apart, that is, from the difference does it make to them or us? ‘minor’ question of the big acting And who really cares? Isn’t it all just a Statistically, categories, where the winners had media-generated storm in a teacup? been the favourites for weeks. Eddie Oscar voters are Redmayne, Julianne Moore, Patricia What are Movie Awards for? overwhelmingly Arquette and JK Simmons had already The Oscars, the oldest of the awards, won BAFTAs for Best Actor/Actress date back to 1929 and silent cinema; male (76%), and Best Supporting Actress/Actor the first Best Picture winner was the older (63 is the in February and had been hefting World War I drama Wings (Wellman/ prizes aloft for their categories way USA/1927). Each year’s round of average age) back at the Golden Globes in January. awards added artistic credibility to an and 94% white. Redmayne and his rival, Benedict industry which was originally derided Cumberbatch needed none of their as producing disposable, populist characters’ science genius to work out trash in comparison to the ‘proper’ who was going to win. It was very clear theatrical work taking place on stage it wasn’t going to be Cumberbatch! in the great theatres of the globe.

50 In its early days, therefore, the for both the BAFTAs and Oscars. film industry needed to give itself a They bring credibility; The voters for the top awards sheen of artistry to help combat its a currency that are members of an exclusive club, negative image (not unlike the work numbering a few thousand at of the video games industry today soothes both a most. Statistically, Oscar voters are perhaps?) This was important both star’s craving for overwhelmingly male (76%), older (63 to elevate the status of the medium, is the average age) and 94% white. and also to access funding from the recognition, and Put like that, the awards business American financial elite who were, the financial qualms appears more than a little incestuous, understandably, wary of risking with the wins heavily weighted in investment in an industry seen as of investors. terms of both race and gender. both fly-by-night, but also cheap and discreditable, and liable to undermine Which Films need to be both their bank balance and reputation. Nominated? So Why Have Movie Awards? Other factors also influence which movies get nominated or win. Tentpole Those were the early days, but movies are usually assured of financial why do awards continue now? Who success, the closest Hollywood gets to would challenge the status of film a sure thing, with their multi-million with such arrogance today? Who dollar distribution campaigns, popular could dismiss a medium that has Public Domain Public franchises, built-in fan bases, advance produced talents as varied as Orson internet chatter and world famous Welles, John Ford, Steven Spielberg recognition to two of Hollywood’s stars. Hello Spectre and Avengers and Alfred Hitchcock or Sofia Coppola, most famed, highest paid, yet, Assemble – it’s you we are talking Jane Campion, Kathryn Bigelow, and awards-wise, least rewarded actors. about here! Awards for these films Thelma Schoonmaker; a medium Many others in the industry share are very nice, but not essential. that has also become a lucrative the same motivation, from directors It is the smaller films – the industry of global reach and impact? to set designers, cinematographers to challenging, the independent, and Film Awards are important today composers. Awards are the ultimate the non-generic – which often for many of the same reasons that seal of success on a high-profile career struggle. Without the budget or the originally made them relevant. Film – for example Julianne Moore’s success visibility of adaptation from a famous actors have long desired the artistic for Still Alice. They may also represent existing property, without a high status of their less well-paid and less the breakthrough to fame, riches and concept tagline, these films can be pampered stage equivalents. This opportunity – we can expect to see a hard sell. They may not even find a lot more of Eddie Redmayne! They distribution, let alone an audience. No film made less can propel a spectacular comeback, as Take this synopsis: witnessed in Matthew McConaughy’s A middle-aged man in mid- money because renaissance since his Best Actor win life crisis falls in love with his it won awards. for Dallas Buyers Club. Finally, awards daughter’s best friend, quits provide recognition for the character his job, dumps his wife, works is why they often take stage roles, actors, writers, cinematographers, set out, smokes dope and winds appear in independent films or on designers and others who toil quietly up dead. Key images include TV for far less pay than they normally and often brilliantly in the less showy a shower masturbation scene, would, so they can work with directors and glamorous end of the Hollywood Nazi paraphernalia, and a plastic and writers they respect. This is the pool – for instance, JK Simmons’ bag blowing in the wind. work that gives them the possibility well-deserved win in Whiplash! of artistic acclaim; fame and money If you hadn’t realised, that was a alone is not enough. Hence for all the Who Votes and Why? (bad!) pitch for American Beauty, Sam Mendes’ Oscar winner from 2000 – just World War Z’s and War of the Worlds Remember the people who actually the sort of film that would struggle which make the big money, you will vote for the Oscars and BAFTAs. They without the visibility generated by also find the stars, in this case Brad Pitt are the successful working talent of the awards. Try the same pitch exercise with and Tom Cruise, appearing respectively American and British film industries. Slumdog Millionaire (Boyle/UK/2009), in Twelve Years a Slave (McQueen/ You might be tempted to vote for USA/2014) and Born on the Fourth your contemporaries this year when or The King’s Speech (Hooper/UK/2011) of July (Stone/USA/1989). These are they could vote for you the next. In fact, all these films were very films with recognised auteur directors Also, since many work in both Britain successful financially, partly due to the offering the possibility of awards and Hollywood, they get to vote momentum created by awards acclaim.

51 Spot the winner: British heritage project, credible cast, based on an existing literary property, and a tortured character overcoming disability and prejudice to achieve redemption.

Mini-studios and Oscar key Boyhood slipped unobtrusively Bumps through cinemas before nominations brought it to the world’s attention. In response to this pattern, Similarly, Wes Anderson’s The Grand Hollywood has created mini-studios, Budapest Hotel, originally released often offshoots of the Hollywood in early 2014 had a much more majors themselves, which specialise in successful later life as a result of financing or acquiring and distributing its nominations later in the year. smaller films that might have a chance of success given the right campaign. Who Really Cares? Examples include Fox Searchlight, Paramount Vantage and, most So do these awards really matter? famously, the Weinstein Company. Each year they generate feverish Harvey and Bob Weinstein have been attention and speculation. Perhaps they responsible for the longest run of retain momentum because they matter Oscar successes in history, including most to the key players in the film everything from The King’s Speech and and media industries. Cynically, they affect the bottom line. No film made Pulp Fiction to The Artist. All won Oscars less money because it was nominated and benefited from campaigns by the for or won awards. Awards can turn notoriously confrontational Weinsteins. And inevitably the box office for all an unknown like Slumdog Millionaire into a box office powerhouse. They these films benefited from the ‘Oscar Domain Public Bump’ that often accompanies awards. can also provide filmmakers with the momentum to take their career to the Showiness Wins next level. In the insecure and anxious world of filmmaking, awards provide This year the Weinsteins backed something intangible and yet essential: Cumberbatch for The Imitation credibility; a currency that soothes Game; it won no major awards, but both a star’s craving for recognition, benefited substantially in terms and the financial qualms of investors. of box-office returns. The film was We can expect the awards corridor awards-friendly, and in the mould of to be with us for a long time yet. previous successes: a British heritage project, a credible cast, based on an Jonathan Nunns is Head of Media Studies existing literary property, and focused In MediaMag 55, we’ll be at Collyer’s College and moderates for a on a tortured character overcoming investigating the money major awarding body. that goes into (and comes disability and prejudice to achieve out of) winning awards. redemption. Sadly for the Weinsteins, The Theory of Everything (Marsh/ FOLLOW IT UP UK/2014) offered similar elements Blohm, C. 2015. Why the and according to the critics, conveyed Oscars Matter 29/1/15 them better than The Imitation www.littleatoms.com Game. Redmayne’s performance had Collins P., Why Do We (Or Don’t We) Care About The a ‘showiness’ that Cumberbatch’s BAFTAs? 10/2/12 did not, drawing parallels with www.screenjunkies.com previous successes such as Forrest Dibden, E.: Who Votes Gump, Rain Man, and Philadelphia. at the Oscars? The Ins And Outs Of Academy For many films, a nomination in Voting Explained,16/1/15 itself can draw the attention needed www.digitalspy.co.uk for success. Richard Linklater’s low-

Boyhood Photo Stock / Alamy © Atlaspix

52 Privacy, the Press, and the Protection of the Powerful profile people, later proven innocent, have Other Side of Jimmy Savile eventually Harry Cunningham investigates described the financial burden of fighting aired on ITV in 2012, focusing on five the role of the media in a lengthy court case, not helped by the victims. Immediately before and after the historical allegations of child role of newspapers in encouraging other broadcast, hundreds more victims came abuse against high-profile victims to come forward. Others, including forward. Their allegations were passed on celebrities and politicians. former Home Secretary Leon Brittain, have to the police who set up an investigation, died before their innocence was proven. Operation Yewtree; and in a joint report, the NSPCC and the Metropolitan Police he prosecution of celebrities False allegations: The law gives life- concluded that Savile had abused 450 and politicians for sexual long anonymity to victims of sexual victims during his lifetime, and was one misconduct has a long abuse, regardless of the outcome of of the UK’s most prolific child abusers. history. In 1895, the famous their trial; those who have been wrongly Jimmy Savile hid in plain sight: his writerT Oscar Wilde was prosecuted accused have argued there is no deterrent staggeringly candid autobiography for homosexuality – illegal until against false allegations. Historically, admits to much of his lurid activity, and 1967; in 1963, cabinet minister John the threat of libel action by those in a the many features and documentaries Profumo was forced to resign after position to hire the best lawyers has also about his life hint at his despicable a huge high court case and public frightened some newspaper editors into crimes. His overriding legacy has been scandal involving espionage and dropping stories about celebrities, despite to change fundamentally the way the national security issues as well as the evidence. It has been suggested sexual impropriety; in 1979 the then that the current climate is simply a Leader of the Liberal party Jeremy reactionary backlash to past behaviour. An outpouring of Thorpe was accused of conspiracy The conviction or acquittal of national anger, disbelief, and to murder his lover Norman Scott. heroes and once-well-regarded pillars But the most recent flurry of high-profile of society has led to an outpouring of even the challenging political and celebrity prosecutions is anger, disbelief, and even the challenging of our national different: these cases involve children and of our national cultural identity. To young people under the age of consent. investigate the media’s role in this cultural identity. They are unique in precedent and scale recent phenomenon, let’s summarise police and the media handle complaints and they present major challenges to how this scandal has played out since against establishment figures. journalists who wish to comment and 2012, by examining the controversy In the three years since Savile’s exposure, report on them fairly, as listed below. surrounding three of these cases. scores of once much-loved figures Historic offences: Many of the crimes The Legacy of have been investigated and convicted. were committed long ago; evidence Entertainer Rolf Harris was jailed for five that could be used to convict someone Jimmy Savile: years and nine months in July 2014, in 2015 – CCTV, mobile phone records, Timeline of celebrity publicist Max Clifford for eight internet history, DNA testing – is not the Scandal years, former It’s a Knockout presenter available. To succeed, prosecution Stuart Hall was sent down for five years frequently relies heavily on collective In 2011, and ITV weatherman Fred Talbot for five testimony; the evidence of the initial investigative years, whilst disgraced singer Gary Glitter complainant, plus that of other victims, journalist Mark – already convicted of similar charges which builds a big picture of similar Williams-Thomas in the late 1990s – was convicted of offences. Once a newspaper names the researched claims that the late DJ and further counts and received a sentence accused, other victims may come forward Top of the Pops presenter Sir Jimmy of 16 years. Savile’s friends and former with similar evidence or testimony. Savile had abused children. Initially radio colleagues Chris Denning and Ray So-called witch-hunts: If the accused is Williams-Thomas worked for BBC’s Terrett, were also sentenced to 13 years eventually cleared or the charges dropped, Newsnight, but the corporation dropped and 25 years in prison, respectively. the media may be accused of fuelling the story, allegedly for genuine editorial false accusations and unnecessarily reasons. The decision caused national Reporting Politicians prolonging an already complicated public outrage and helped topple BBC police investigation – in other words, of Director General, George Entwistle. In recent months police and media orchestrating a witch-hunt. Many high- Williams-Thomas’ documentary The attention has focused on politicians.

53 Operations Fernbridge and Midland disappear, presumed destroyed. A disagree with her, Harris’ case provides are looking into allegations that senior journalist to whom the dossier was ample support. Once publicly outed, many members of the three main parties given was visited by officers from Special more victims came forward, and Harris from the 1970s and 80s were part of Branch who removed it and warned was eventually found guilty on 12 charges an abuse ring at the notorious Elmtree him not to publish any of its contents. – three more than he initially faced. guesthouse in London, and at Dolphin This cover-up also involved Cyril Smith, Harris’s almost constant media presence Square in Pimlico, where many MPs had against whom 144 separate allegations and coverage in the lead-up to his trial apartments. Many of these allegations were made to the police during his also helped secure his conviction. Crucially, featured the Liberal MP, Cyril Smith, lifetime; all of these were dropped Harris testified he had not been present who died in 2010; in 2013, Greater and any evidence destroyed before he when one of the incidents took place Manchester Police concluded that there could be charged or brought to trial. in the 1970s. The victim claimed Harris was ‘overwhelming evidence’ that Smith had abused her in Cambridge when was guilty of abusing young boys and that Rolf Harris and the filming a game show called Star Games; this should be ‘publicly recognised’. The ‘Leveson Effect’ Harris denied he had ever participated in the show, or even visited Cambridge. In November 2012, at the height of However, after coverage of Harris’ trial, a the Savile scandal, family entertainer Rolf member of the public came forward with Harris was interviewed under caution a crucial last-minute piece of evidence: a whilst police searched his home and tape-recording of the Star Games episode examined his computer. He was named featuring Harris. This proved he was lying, on Twitter and in some blogs, but not in adding considerable weight to the media’s the mainstream media, which reported argument that they were right to name only that police had interviewed ‘an 82 Harris and to heavily publicise the trial. year old man from Berkshire’. Harris’ name had still not appeared in reports even Sir Cliff and the BBC: From Pop after his eventual arrest in March 2013. Icon to Tabloid Fodder Guy Corbishley / Demotix / Demotix/Press / Demotix Demotix/Press Guy Corbishley ImagesAssociation The revelations only surfaced a month later when, according to the Guardian’s In contrast to their protective Celebrity is a media media columnist Roy Greenslade, the management of the Harris case, the construct which is Sun newspaper went to extraordinary media, and specifically the BBC, were lengths to ‘out’ him, printing a dummy accused of orchestrating a witch-hunt over easily manipulated copy of its front page on the pretext of their reporting of pop star Cliff Richard. In and, more often than preventing rival papers from changing August 2014 Sir Cliff’s home was searched their front pages and copying their scoop. in his absence by police seeking evidence not, completely at In fact the Sun’s drastic measures had of claims made against him. But before odds with reality. another explanation. In November 2012, he had even been informed of the raid, Harris’ lawyers had written to the major let alone interviewed or arrested, the BBC, former Labour MP, Lord Greville Janner, newspapers forbidding them to report who had been leaked advance knowledge now suffering from severe dementia, his name. Had they had discovered the of the raid, broadcast footage of officers recently faced prosecution for 22 offences, Sun’s story, they may have tried to block entering and searching his home from a after several failed attempts to build a publication, pending a court case to helicopter live on the BBC News Channel. case against him in 1991 and 2007. determine whether naming him was The story inevitably exploded in the Operation Midland is also investigating in the public interest. Harris’ lawyers, tabloid press. The Daily Star ran with ‘Sir allegations that young boys were however, did not cite any existing law. Cliff Richard Child Sex Shock’, ignoring the murdered in order to prevent them from They threatened newspapers on the basis fact that he denied the allegation and had speaking out about this abuse ring. There of a recommendation in Lord Justice not been arrested, while the Sun’s front have also been further allegations of a Leveson’s Report into the Culture and page included details of the allegation, cover-up apparently involving Special stating ‘Cliff Accused’. In his 50-year career, Branch – the elite police unit tasked with Ethics of the Press which suggested that newspapers should not be allowed to Richard has never otherwise been accused protecting national security and high of even a hint of scandal, nor has he been level individuals. The central allegation is name suspects who had been arrested, other than in exceptional circumstances. seriously linked with anyone romantically. that MPs Geoffrey Dickens and Barbara The upside for the tabloids was the ‘shock’ Castle, since deceased, compiled a dossier Interestingly, this recommendation has not been implemented; and, indeed, at that value of exposing someone so famous and regarding the alleged Westminster held in such high regard, far outweighing child abuse ring, which was passed time had not even yet been negotiated. At present there is no law preventing the value of reporting on a star already on to the then-Home Secretary Leon known for scandalous behaviour. As Britain – himself recently deceased and the media from naming a suspect on arrest. In May 2013, the Home Secretary Jimmy Savile had ominously pointed until his death still under investigation out in an interview with Dan Davies: by Operation Midland – only for it to Theresa May said she believed in the ‘right to anonymity at arrest’; for those who

54 Even now the tabloids would under Thatcher), and Anne Widdecombe, Can the Media Offer Us the pay a fortune for something on former shadow home secretary, who Truth? Cliff or on me [...] He’s single, he’s criticised the police for naming Heath, successful, he’s got a few quid, and thus attracting ‘the usual crop of The role of the news media in such he’s got a clean, wholesome fantasists, revenge-seekers and money- scandals is complicated. But, as always, image, there’s nothing on him. chasers’; columnist Dan Hodges wrote: ‘I the ‘truth’ is hard to pin down. In response don’t think there are any victims of Edward to Rolf Harris’ conviction, Russell Brand As of November 2015, Richard has Heath. I think the man who has come commented on The Trews that it was if been neither arrested nor charged forward to claim he was abused by Ted somebody had sprayed ‘graffiti over his with any offence. Heath when he was 12 is mistaken.’ But childhood’; many shared his view. Harris Never Speak Ill of the Dead? should these allegations about Heath be was an icon of light-hearted, family true, such comments, particularly from entertainment who personified that Accusing an ex-Prime Minister former government ministers, may well now-ominous phrase ‘national treasure’; So far the most high-profile political deter other victims from coming forward. yet in a single day all this was destroyed name to be linked with child abuse is Ted and replaced with an altogether different Heath, leader of the Conservative Party representation: Harris the predator, from 1965 until 1975, and prime minister the sinister abuser, the pathological from 1970-1974. In August 2015, Wiltshire liar. We are left with a perplexing and police investigated claims he was involved disturbing void between Harris’ public in child abuse and at least one cover-up self – the side we see filtered through operation. For some time Heath had the media – and his most private, and, been the source of much conjecture on as it transpired, deeply clandestine, self. the internet, and the Labour Deputy Tom This gulf cannot easily be explained Watson has since revealed that in 2012 he away by a newspaper column, or a had been approached with allegations, Images: Archive/PA / PA Elizabeth Cook Elizabeth Cook Court by drawing documentary into the ‘darker side’ of which he had passed onto the police Rolf. It reminds us of a sobering fact – who had already been investigating The motives of which most media organisations would Heath in secret for many months. Once perhaps prefer not to admit: that named publicly, many more allegations journalists and celebrity is a media construct which is emerged, leading to seven different politicians can all easily manipulated and, more often than police forces beginning investigations. not, completely at odds with reality. Heath died in 2005, and was therefore too easily become not subject to the reporting restrictions partisan. Politicians’ Harry Cunningham has written freelance which protect those accused of a crime for the Guardian, the Huffington Post, until a jury’s verdict. It was therefore public interventions Writers’ Forum Magazine and the Leicester possible to circulate information which may be coloured by Mercury. would usually be treated more ‘sensitively’. It was revealed that Heath had been the need to protect the mentioned in the original dossier Page 54: Gary Glitter AKA Paul Gadd arrives at integrity of their party. Westminster Magistrates Court in London allegedly confiscated by Special Branch. An American journalist claimed that in Left: shows Rolf Harris during the guilty the course of an investigation into Heath’s Heath’s status as a very senior politician verdict at Southwark Crown Court, London activities on the island of Jersey, she was also further complicates the reporting of detained at Heathrow and barred from the issue. Although this scandal exposed entering the country for two years. the culture of Westminster and the era Arguably the lack of reporting in general, rather than the attitude of restrictions in this instance is a healthy any one political party, the motives of FOLLOW IT UP change, exposing allegations which journalists and politicians can all too Brand, R. ‘The Trews Episode easily become partisan. Politicians’ 90: Rolf Harris: What Should have been dormant for many decades, We Think?’, You Tube. and encouraging other victims to come public interventions, such as those from Widdecombe and Tebbit, may be Davies, D. 2014. In Plain forward. However, it also gives newspapers Sight: The Life and Lies free rein to run potentially unhelpful coloured by the need to protect the of Jimmy Savile integrity of their party. Similarly, members comment pieces. Scores of Heath’s former ‘Exposure: The Other Side colleagues defended him the broadsheet of opposition parties may jump to of Jimmy Savile’. 2012. ITV conclusions in their own political interests. press. The Telegraph, known for its loyalty Leveson, The Rt.Hon. Lord to the Conservative Party, was particularly Justice. 2012. Inquiry Into The Culture, Practises protective, featuring support from and Ethics of the Press Norman Tebbit, (a Conservative MP under Heath and later chairman of the party

55 56

Essie Davis and Noah Wiseman in THE BABADOOK, Copyright: Icon Film Distribution, courtesy of Image.net he ritual of the child’s bedtime story Trauma, is synonymous with conventional representations of childhood. repression and Images of happy children snuggled up in bed while parents read them their favourite catharsis in stories have come to connote stable (and often middle-class) family models. These children are The Babadook nourished and nurtured by loving parental figures in an environment that is safe and reassuring. The Babadook (2014) invites us to ‘see what’s underneath’ this nostalgia-inflected vision of Gabrielle O’Brien suggests childhood, when an apparently malevolent pop- that whether you’re studying up book makes its way into the home of single- Gothic literature, psychology, mum Amelia (Essie Davis) and her son Samuel or the horror genre, this (Noah Wiseman). Australian director Jennifer Kent film goes way beyond the uses a range of tropes associated with the horror conventional scary movie into genre, and draws on the work of Roman Polanski the inner world of the mind. (especially Repulsion, 1960), David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick (particularly The Shining), as well as pioneering silent filmmaker Georges Méliès.

57 The Narrative At the heart of The Babadook is a bereaved single mother who cannot reconcile her ambivalent feelings towards her son. Amelia’s husband died in a car crash while driving her to the hospital to give birth to Samuel. After six years, Samuel’s presence is still synonymous with trauma and unexpressed The Uncanny grief, and Amelia is unable to come to terms with her husband’s death. Mother and son According to Sigmund Freud, when the co-exist in an uncomfortable claustrophobia, distinction between inanimate and animate increasingly isolated from the outside objects breaks down (for example the line that world. Samuel is desperate for the love and divides the living and the dead), an unsettling validation that his mother seems unable to sensation is produced that he called ‘the offer, and he exhibits aggressive behavioural uncanny’. This idea is explored in the setting of tendencies that mark him as a troubled child. The Babadook. The haunted house symbolises When Samuel is expelled from school the conflicted internal ‘rooms’ of Amelia’s for bringing in a dangerous weapon to ‘kill traumatised mind, and suggests an ‘uncanny’ or monsters’, the fragile pair retreat into a kind ‘unheimlich’ state; the house’s furniture takes of perverse symbiosis. Samuel’s high-pitched on an ominous, living quality, both threatening anxiety and Amelia’s maternal guilt begin the domestic space, and reflecting the internal to manifest externally when Mr Babadook, contamination that Amelia is suffering. This sense the menacing subject of the pop-up-book, is enhanced by a washed-out colour palette emerges from its pages. He initially haunts of blues and greys that hints at the uncanny their home, and then physically possesses merging of conscious and unconscious impulses, the body of Amelia, forcing her to threaten and foreshadows the waking nightmare that Samuel’s safety. The haunted house and violent Mr Babadook will bring to this sleepy suburban bodily possession are of course standard horror house. Crucially, this muted aesthetic suggests tropes, but here they are reconsidered within that the conditions are already in place for a the context of a mother’s psychological crisis. destructive malevolent presence to stake a claim.

58 anyway. Samuel’s fixation with Mr Babadook The haunted house becomes Amelia’s, which in turn becomes a symbolises the conflicted living incarnation of her repressed trauma. This opens up the space for a supernatural internal ‘rooms’ of Amelia’s element that shapes both the narrative and traumatised mind, and character arcs, and acts as a metaphor for the film’s central themes. Samuel’s obsession with an suggests an ‘uncanny’ external threat is clearly connected to the loss or ‘unheimlich’ state of his father, and his repressed guilt at having caused it. He wants to defend his mother from Freudian Trauma Mr Babadook, taking on the protective male role left vacant by his father. This escalates Samuel’s Freud believed that traumatised subjects could already antisocial behaviour, and drives mother repress painful experiences, and unconsciously and son further away from the clearly signposted refuse to confront them. He suggested that such conscious realm, and further into the twilight events could later resurface through the presence territory of repressed emotion and grief. of a different trigger stimulus. For Amelia, this stimulus is presented by the sinister pop-up Mr The Value of Horror Babadook. The uncanny atmosphere offered up The horror genre has always been fascinated by Amelia’s house suggests that the creature with the murky unconscious realm lurking somehow already ‘belongs’ there; we are never beneath the surface of the cultural status quite sure whether her repressed grief and terror quo. Horror films allow the audience a safe has bought to life a material being, or whether place to explore the extreme, dark and violent he would have found his way into their lives

59 Horror films allow the audience a safe place to explore the extreme, dark and violent impulses that must be repressed for society to function Subversion and excess are key The Concept of Catharsis impulses that must be repressed for society to function effectively. Subversion and excess Amelia’s recognition of repressed impulses, are key to horror cinema; it sits outside of the and her eventual negotiation of her ambivalent mainstream cultural landscape, so that it can emotions towards her child, lead to a state interrogate it, and perhaps unearth some of of catharsis. This is what psychoanalysts its uncomfortable truths. While most horror refer to as the release of unpleasant tensions films work through shock and producing a when repressed ideas or experiences become state of anxiety in the audience, here it is the conscious. Within the narrative, Amelia unconventional representation of a mother- achieves this catharsis by projecting her figure in crisis that produces these sensations resentment of her child onto Mr Babadook; in the viewer. The Babadook is most unsettling she summons him in order to play out her because it depicts a mother who cannot connect fears; and they are also played out for the with her only child – a social taboo which is audience, who may also experience a kind fused with the visceral shocks of the horror of secondary catharsis – a release of tension genre. This renegotiation of familiar generic at the taming of the threatening monster elements differs from the ‘shocks and gore for by the formerly vulnerable mother. their own sake’ typical of Hollywood horror films Catharsis in horror is a well-established or franchises like the Saw series. Instead of a convention, but in The Babadook we see the formulaic procession of cruel, bloody body horror, concept externalised and made tangible. The Babadook provides a more introspective, Amelia must confront the reality of her female-centred narrative that appeals to a resentment towards her son, and it is the far broader audience than the usual horror intruder who forces these repressed truths demographic of teenage to 20-something males. out into the open; ‘I wish it was you that had

60 died and not him!’ she shrieks at Samuel while The film reads as a metaphor ostensibly ‘possessed’ by Mr Babadook. for the way that our fears and The message here is about the dangers of ignoring unpalatable truths instead of facing regrets are absorbed into the up to them. Amelia and Sam’s catharsis comes tapestry of our day-to-day lives after the violent expression of her resentment for the past, and her fears for the future. Beyond through and live with and in a way nurture the generic framework of horror conventions, in order to have any kind of balance. the film also reads as a metaphor for the way that our fears and regrets are absorbed into the This idea of balance is linked to a maternal tapestry of our day-to-day lives. After giving impulse, and the richly allegorical narrative and violent expression to her trauma (her loneliness, fairytale film-style supports this connection. frustration and maternal guilt), Amelia can Catharsis in The Babadook is associated with an overcome the dark impulses manifested by optimistic hope for the future. The domestic Mr Babadook. She confines him to the cellar, space has been restored, the and visits him daily to feed and water him, figurative demons safely tethered FOLLOW IT UP below ground – out of sight, but symbolically acknowledging the pain of the Neale, S. 1980. Genre. BFI. past, but locking it away into a dark corner of most definitely not out of mind. Internet encyclopaedia of her psyche. Essie Davis, the actor who plays philosophy: A peer reviewed Amelia, sums up the film’s treatment of grief: Gabrielle O’ Brien is a film writer and academic resource. http:// www.iep.utm.edu/aris-poe/ It’s not something that you get out and teacher with an MA in Film Studies from Kingston University. She is a regular Davis, E.: Babadook then it’s gone away. It’s something that you DVD special features. have to be there and experience and live contributor to MediaMag.

61 Marketing Marmite in the Postmodern Age

Advertisers must keep finding new ways to sell if consumers are to continue wanting to buy the products and services of their clients. Symon Quy unscrews the lid of a Marmite jar to explore how advertisers are meeting this challenge in the 21st century – and discovers that the answer lies in the slippery concept of postmodernism.

62 here’s an old adage in the industry that then makes him envious of himself as he might advertising works to ‘make you feel that you be. [...] The spectator-buyer is meant to envy can’t possibly live without what you don’t herself as she will become if she buys the product. really need’. It neatly sums up the She is meant to imagine herself transformed by aspirational nature of advertisements from an the product into an object of envy for others. industry that is based around the ethics of Psychologists in the field call this referencing. consumerism. We are being sold products that we We refer, either knowingly or subconsciously, to believe might make us better in some way – more lifestyles represented to us (through the media or healthy; more informed; more cool; more in real life) that we find attractive. We create a vision attractive; more enviable. To buy more is to be of ourselves living this idealised lifestyle, and then more. Advertising seeks to make us dissatisfied behave in ways that help us to realise this vision. with our present selves and promotes the idea But hold on a minute – this is the 21st century, isn’t it? that we can buy our way to a better life. ‘All We’ve known about this cynical manipulation of our baser publicity works on anxiety’ suggested John Berger emotions for decades now, haven’t we? Surely we’ve now in his seminal book Ways of Seeing (1972). evolved into sophisticated and highly critical consumers who Advertising offers us an improved version of know how to get value for money, particularly as we are now ourselves, whether we are male or female: offered ever more ways to shop in a global marketplace? Publicity is always about the future Well, yes and no. Contemporary consumers seem to buyer. It offers him an image of himself have entered in to a different kind of covenant with made glamorous by the product or advertising – one based around the notion that ‘we opportunity it is trying to sell. The image know that they know that we know…’: essentially, a classic example of postmodern thinking. But first let’s have a look at a product in historic and cultural context.

Marmite: A Short History

The product that was to become Marmite was invented in the late 19th century when German scientist Justus von Liebig discovered that brewer’s yeast could be concentrated, bottled and eaten. The Marmite Food Extract Company was formed in Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire in 1902 with the by-product yeast needed for the paste supplied by Bass Brewery. Marmite takes its name from the clay French stock- pot used for reducing foods into stews. It was originally supplied in small earthenware pots, but was made available in the characteristically-shaped black glass jars from the 1920s. The stockpot remains on the label, however, with The classic Marmite the connotations of traditional cookery and ‘boiled-down branding (by kind permission of Unilever) goodness’ that were a feature of early advertisements.

63 The product’s popularity prompted the Sanitarium Health Food Company to obtain sole rights to distribute the product in New Zealand and Australia in 1908. This company originally marketed the product as a health food.

By 1912, the discovery of vitamins was a boost for Marmite, which is a rich source of the vitamin B. With the vitamin B1 deficiency disease beri-beri common during World War I, the spread became more popular. British troops were issued with Marmite as part of their rations, and the product has been associated with the military in its advertising ever since. Housewives were encouraged to spread Marmite thinly and to ‘use it sparingly just now’ because of limited rations of the product during the war.

From the 1970s, Marmite was promoted as a family product, passed from generation to generation. The marketing phrase ‘The growing up spread you never grow out of’ underlined the company’s 1978 campaign. The television advertisement detailed a mother’s family history through a sequence of still photographs; one showed her father serving in World War II to give the product a sense of continuity across generations. By 1990, Marmite Limited had become a subsidiary of Bovril Limited, which became Best Foods Inc. in 1998, and merged with Unilever in 2000; Marmite is now a trademark owned by Unilever. So how has this company kept its image fresh for a new generation of consumers? The answer lies in its adoption of the ideas and tropes of postmodernism. And if you’re looking to understand the concept and significance of postmodernism for your A2 exam, and the features of postmodern texts, this case study has it all.

64 Marmite’s use of Ten Traits of Postmodernism

IT TAKES PLEASURE IN PLAYFULNESS A 2006 advertisement, entitled ‘Breast is Best’ shows a breastfeeding mother being copiously vomited on by her baby, as she eats toast topped with Marmite from the newly-available squeezy container. The ad picked up on topical debates about women breastfeeding in public, and cleverly tied this to the ‘love it or hate it’ angle – all to comic effect. Created by the DBB London agency, the advertisement targeted new media as this was judged to be the best way to hit the widest range of Marmite’s potential consumers. IT EMPLOYS INTERTEXTUALITY A common tendency in postmodern advertising is to refer to other media products. Marmite’s 2003 ad featuring Zippy from the children’s television programme Rainbow is a good example. In 2007 an 18-month, £3m campaign featured the 1970s cartoon character Paddington Bear. These adverts continued the ‘love it or hate it’ theme, but also incorporated nostalgic elements that appeal to the family member with responsibility for getting the grocery shopping done. Paddington Bear is shown trading his well-known marmalade sandwiches for Marmite sandwiches. He is shown enjoying the taste, while others are repelled by it. The ads are designed to encourage more people to use the spread in sandwiches – less popular than Marmite on toast. ‘Paddington has eaten marmalade sandwiches for 50 years. If he can change his habit, so can anyone,’ said Cheryl Calverley, Marmite marketing manager, on BBC News.

IT SATIRISES AUDIENCE’S EXPECTATIONS Recognising the codes and conventions of different media forms is one of the ways viewers place media texts in to categories or genres. The recent Marmite Neglect campaign simultaneously parodies the conventions of television documentaries, and satirises our expectations of advertising. The agency developed an online forum for online critiques of the broadcasts. But just in case viewers took the complaints about animal welfare at face value, the company made a five-figure donation to the RSPCA.

IT JUXTAPOSES POPULAR CULTURE WITH HIGH CULTURE Royal Warrants of Appointment are acknowledgements to those companies that provide goods or services to the British royal family; since 1840, this approval has been used to promote products, with a warrant entitling them to use the strapline ‘By appointment to Her Majesty the Queen’ alongside the royal crest. Unilever has spoofed this approach, with the Ma’amite series of advertisements, typifying the irreverent nature of their product – breadsticks form a crown and the Queen’s corgi dogs replace the lion and unicorn. The motto ‘One either loves it or hates it’ is a delightful comic conjoining of the familiar product slogan and the Queen’s idiosyncratic speech.

65 IT DIVERSIFIES THE BRAND TO ALTERNATIVE SPACES AND PLACES Advertisers constantly seek new platforms and sites from which to promote products. The success of the British team in competitive cycling in recent years has led to rising popularity in the sport, and an increased exposure in the media. Marmite have exploited this and licensed a range of cycling shirts that promote the product with puns about ‘hating jams’ and ‘being good in bread’. The range of products to which Unilever has diversified Marmite includes crisps, chocolate, lip-salve and even edible body paint!

IT EXPLOITS THE CULTURAL ZEITGEIST  THE MOOD OF THE TIMES In 2010 a General Election returned a Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government. The limited number of young people voting was a particular concern at the time, as was a general sense of disillusionment with the political process of the election. Marmite’s The Love Party and the Hate Party campaign saw the production of a series of mock political party posters, which picked up on the mood of cynicism towards politics and politicians. These advertisements deployed the iconography of political culture in a postmodern pastiche.

IT POSITIONS THE AUDIENCE AS ENLIGHTENED ‘SUPERIOR, KNOWING INSIDERS’ AND PROMOTIONAL AGENTS Postmodern audiences arguably understand that they are being manipulated by marketing. They understand the conventions that are being deployed and satirised. Postmodern consumers are simultaneously aware that they are being exploited, yet also prepared to play the game – if it brings them a sense of superiority and social cache. Postmodern consumers get the joke and, in doing so, they themselves may become promotional agents of the product through word-of mouth.

IT PLAYS WITH HYPERREALITY Hyperreality is seen as a condition in which reality and fiction are seamlessly blended together so that there is no clear distinction between where one ends and the other begins. Postmodern advertising plays with this notion, too. The #Marmiteneglect campaign is rooted in the ‘reality’ that jars of Marmite often remain unused in the backs of cupboards (as identified by consumer data from market research). This ‘real-life concern’ is then positioned within a narrative of social neglect, and exploits the conventions of misery-memoirs, as read in ‘true stories’ such as A Child Called It. Postmodern advertising, like the postmodern humour of programmes like Life Is Short, may transgress boundaries of taste in order to make audiences question notions of what is real and of value in society. (See what I did there with a Marmite-tastic pun on the word taste?!)

66 IT MAKES THE DISPOSABLE COLLECTIBLE The Marmite brand has developed a marketing approach that enables it to vary the distinctive look of its products and, thus, make them collectible. Unilever does this by occasionally producing alternative packaging that forms limited editions of the product, such as Marmite Gold and Marmite Summer of Love and Hate.

IT IS ABSTRACTED ACROSS OTHER ART FORMS Marmite has even had an impact upon sculpture as an art form. Unilever invested £15,000 in a sculpture of a Marmite jar, nicknamed Monumite, which can be found next to the main library in Burton-on-Trent. It demonstrates how one characteristic of a product (in this case the distinctively-shaped jar) is taken to an abstract dimension while always remaining recognisable to consumers. The sculpture is designed so that people can get inside it; photo-opportunities that will see the product promoted at a discreet-level through postings on social media.

IT CREATES DISCUSSION HEY, I THOUGHT THERE WERE SUPPOSED TO Symon Quy is Head of Media at BE ONLY TEN CHARACTERISTICS IN Stockley Academy, London. THIS LIST?! Well, I’m being thoroughly postmodern by playing with your expectations and making a knowing, intertextual Marmit advertising images by kind wink to anyone who’s seen the spoof rock documentary Spinal permission of Unilever Tap and knows that it’s better because it goes up to eleven! It’s essential to get your campaign, and therefore your product talked about – the only thing worse than being talked about in contemporary advertising is not being talked-about. Thus, Unilever FOLLOW IT UP has promoted Marmite as a term that implies polarised responses. YouTube carries a huge Note the by-line in the Daily Mirror for Robbie Savage: ‘Football’s range of Marmite TV ads Mr. Marmite. Love him or hate him; you can’t ignore him’. from 1978 to 2015 – well Since the 1990s, Unilever’s campaigns admit that not everyone will worth exploring. want to buy their product. Companies normally try to maximise their FROM THE ARCHIVE potential consumer-audiences, so to admit that this is a targeted Ironic or what? niche product might seem to be against conventional advertising Five ways to spot a wisdom. Ultimately, the evidence for the success of these postmodern postmodern film – MM2 ads remains sales of the product. Sales figures and market research May the power(mop) be suggests that Marmite can now be found in a quarter of all British with you: Postmodernism homes. So, what exactly would a postmodernist make of that? and TV advertising – MM11 The Mighty Boosh: A case study in Postmodernism – MM23

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