The British film industry: institutional context

3) What is the 'cultural test' to see if a film counts as British?

A culture test is used to check if the film is British, if it doesn't quality as a co-production. In the test, the are four different sections which are : Cultural Context, Contribution, Hubs and Practitioners. In order to pass this, the movie must get a score of 16 out of 31 points.

4) Complete the task on the Factsheet, researching the films listed and finding out what they score on the cultural test: Sweeney, Attack The Block, The King's Speech, We Need To Talk About Kevin and Skyfall.

• Sweeney - this movie itself scored 16 just on the context part of the test which automatically meant that this was a British movie.
• Attack the Block - This is a British movie as it is using British characters and is based in Britain. Also the storyline is based on 'Broken Britain'.
• Skyfall - This is linked to British intelligence and just like all the other movies above, it also uses a variety of British characters even though sometimes it is based in another country other than the UK.
• The King's Speech - This is portraying the royal family which instantly is known to be a British movie.

5) What is the main problem for the British film industry?

The British film industry has been production led rather than distribution led. This means that many UK films are made but, in order to get the film exhibited, the filmmakers have to sacrifice the distribution rights by selling the film to a distribution company

6) What are three of the strengths of the British film industry?

• Several important British Film studios, e.g. Pinewood studios
• Third biggest film industry in the world
• British films also take 5% of world box-office takings.

7) What are the two options for the future of the British film industry?

• Relying upon co productions with American companies as they don't have the finances
• To make low budget films targeted at a niche audience where the film-maker is able to retain all profits.

MEST1 Section B: The British film industry

What makes a film British?

To find out whether a film is British or not is by looking at the criteria down below. This is only the main things that the audience and people within a movie look out:

• Whether the actors are British or not.
• If the location of the movie is in Britain
• Is it related to a normal British lifestyle
• Does it contain stereotypical British items, e.g. a London Bus

Also, to find if the movie is actually British, the movie is firstly gone through a British culture test that the government have organised themselves.

Hollywood and British Production Context

Hollywood

• High Budgeted movies
• Heavy reliance on popular celebrities for casting 
• Spectacle driven stories

British

• British Culture
• Can be occasionally high  budgeted movies but also have the odd low budget movies. A high budget movie would be the Harry Potter sequel and a low budget movie would be 'Kill List'.
• Character Driven

James Bond

The James Bond franchise started in the early 1960s which was roughly the time when all the popular American movies were beginning to be released.

1970 and 1980

• In the 1970s there was an increase in showing sexual content (act of sex and sex linked to violence)
• Also, in the 1980s the was an big rise in videos and the 'video nasty's scare' which meant that the content of the movies would become more extreme.

Groups represented in British films

One of the main groups that have been represented in British films is the middle class people. There is more women than the men because of the less superiority of women between themselves and men.
Another one would be the typical 'trouble-maker' which is mostly portrayed in a younger character who would always be getting into trouble.

Audience Appeal

One of the audience appeal for British film would be the competition with Hollywood movies and also the character, e.g. the royal, posh, luxurious life. The fact that most of the shooting may be taken in London (one of the most popular cities in the world), people would think that it is a more well known film and watch it because of the location.

January assessment: learner response

Question 2 (Mise-en-scene)

The mise-en-scene contributed to the impact of this film through the use of glitter. The usage of glitter suggests that it is a way of having a shattered glass of the car. This goes really well with the lighting because it shows the different colours of the glitter, e.g. yellow or even red which links to the effect of having an accident. Also, the glitter could also represent that this is happening in the dark due to it sparkling (glitter) and suggests to the audience that you should always be careful, especially in the dark. To conclude, audience must be more aware by this as not wearing the seatbelt, especially in the dark, can have an impact on your life. The seatbelt can decide whether you'll be at home or even in the hospital.

Another way in which the mise-en-scene is contributed to the impact of the film is through the use of the characters expressions and the way they had taken their actions. At one point of the extract, the main character that was driving had a smile on a face and then all of a sudden, his face expression had changed instantly. He had a depressing face. This suggested that it was leading to him having a car crash and didn't think he would've survived. After that, his family immediately took action and used their arms as a seatbelt which will protect the main character from any severe injuries. Once they did that, it saved the character from the momentum and then everyone was happy. The impact from this is that family is always there to help you, no matter what. This is telling the audience that you need to be extra careful because you may not always be lucky where there is someone that will protect you because on day, you may be by yourself.

MIGRAIN index

1) Media consumption audit
2) Reading an image: RBK advert analysis & own choice advert analysis
3) Institution: major media institution research and presentation
4) Institution: brand values
5) Institution: CoolBrands research
6) Narrative: narrative theory YouTube clip analysis
7) Audience: psychographics
8) Audience: audience theory blog tasks/questions
9) Audience: audience theory - dependency theory
10) Representation: clip analysis - dominant and alternative representations
11) Representation theory: 500 word analysis on blog
12) Representation: Media Magazine articles and questions
13) Ideology: BBQ QT analysis and binary opposition
14) Ideology: Media Magazine reading 

Ideology: further reading and tasks

The World of Mockingjay

The ideology that has been told in this article about 'The World of Mockingjay' is the differences between the poor and rich people in society. In the context section, it talks about how the poor people live without so much food etc and then linking it to the film (Hunger Games), it starts to talk about every year, 2 people get the chance to live the game where it is a last man standing game. The way to win this game is that you have to kill of the other person. In society, people would believe that this is wrong and fake because this would never be a case where this would happen and hardly, a poor person would get a huge opportunity where as the rich person would. Therefore, this section is telling the opposite ideology.

From all of the Hunger Game trilogy, the Mockingjay is the one movie out of them all that is all about the media; It can either be a movie that anyone can just watch and will be able to enjoy it or it's a movie where many people in society can have their own different belief that can be very negative. A binary opposition that can compare the two different audiences could be 'rational' and 'emotional'. I have chosen these two is because you can either have a person would just watches movie for entertainment or you have people that watch movies that just want to pick out the negatives about it and relate it to reality. Therefore, I believe that this is the ideology that the audience believe in as they have their own power.

They Live

The four accepted ideological beliefs written in this article are the following:

• Money = Happiness
• Consumer  goods = Fulfillment
• Marriage/Family/Children = Happiness
• Obedience/Work = Fulfillment

Gramsci's theory of hegemony

Gransci defined hegemony as an important way in which those in power maintain their control through consent, rather than the use of force. He argued that the power of ideology derives primarily from ideas and structures which support, and thus serve the purpose of, an elite social group which is able to dominate through ideas, rather than militaristic strength or fear.

Therefore, the way that I believe that this is creating power in society is because people across the media have come up with their own consumption's and if people believe that what this person is saying is true, then more and more people would start to believe that individual which would therefore create more power.

French theorist Louis Althusser

This theorist talks about how family, the media etc are the most common sorts of ideologies as we live through it everyday. The ideology of consumerism dominates and drives society. This is where the bigger idea of Althusser's theory comes in. He talks about how we should buy more goods and buy as much as we can because this is what makes everyone more happier in life as it is 'natural'. Therefore, the ideology in this article is about 'goods'. Some people may think that goods is the path to being happy which is talked about in the article. However, people may disagree with this because they may think that other things are the path to happiness.

Ideology and binary opposition

The binary opposition that I had picked from this clip is rich and poor. This is because they're talking about immigrants which is where many people would move from around the world to the UK because of the different lifestyle here compared to when they may come from. I had picked this opposition because the poor are the people coming into the UK and the rich people are the ones who were born and raised here and are living a wealthy lifestyle. 

The ideologies that I have noticed that are on display is cultural and social since it is all about culture and that's the reason why people may want to immigrate to another country. Also, I have spotted a political ideology; Many politicians are against the fact of having immigrants as it putting their country in danger and it is over populated their country, e.g. the UK.

Representation theories: blog task

The clip that I have chosen for this task is East is East. In this clip, it shows different types of groups which will be listed below and will show what if they're dominant or alternative and the stereotypes:

• The Parents

The stereotype in this clip about the parents is that they are Pakistani and will organised an arrange marriage for their children. This is a stereotype because it is would typical Pakistani and Indian parents do for their children. Therefore, this is known as dominant because it sticking with this particular stereotype.

• The group of young Men

The stereotype of these young men is that they usually like to have fun by drinking alcohol and this is a stereotype because this is exactly how most young men behave when they're are out with their mates and for this reason, this stereotype is known as a dominant. However, some people might be civilized and not behave like this as some people do in this clip, therefore they are then known as alternatives. 

• The young boy

In this clip, we see the young boy behaving quite rude which is alternative because a usual young boy wouldn't behave like this; they would most likely be really well behaved and very polite which is definitely going against what this boy is doing the clip.

• The Pakistani Family

This family has come from Pakistan to England to live the normal life and the son is trying to fit in as a normal British person. However, his parents are restricting him by getting him an arranged marriage which doesn't normally happen when living in England. Therefore, this shows that it's dominant and the stereotype is that Pakistani parents always want their children's to get an arrange marriage.

TASK 2

With this video, we can link it to many different representation theories. For example, I believe that this video can link to Richard Dyer, which is to do with stereotyping and power. From what was written above in the last bullet point, I said that 'The Pakistani parents' are quite strict and their lifestyles haven't changed even though they have moved to another country. Therefore, the way this links to Dyers theory because of how the Pakistani parents have still got more power than their children and will overrule them with whatever they say, as to them, moving to another country doesn't mean that they can act in a certain way. Dyer also talks about stereotypes of people who aren't white people, therefore this also links to the fact that this is a Pakistani family that has moved to England which means they are foreigners.

Another theory this links to is Perkins theory. This is because of how this theory talks about the different things being true and it also being a good thing. As shown above, I talked about how the Pakistani family is wanting their child to get an arrange marriage and this is true because this is a common stereotype with many Indian and Pakistani families which relates to the theory. However, in some peoples minds it may be a good thing because their parents have found their child a person to get married to. But in the other peoples mind, they may think it is a bad thing because the child themselves should find their own person to marry as this typical Pakistani tradition shouldn't be carried on when they have moved to another country and there will be less likely another person they could get their son married to.

My third theory I have linked this video to is Medhurst theory. This theory is about when a lot about something has been told to the audience in a short amount of time; I have linked this theory to where the audience find out a lot of the Pakistani group in a couple of minutes by looking at the extract of 'East is East'. The audience can learn a lot about the Pakistani culture in a small amount of time but can be very judgmental about a lot of things which could turn into racial comments by the audience which is also very negative which links really well to the theory of Medhurst. This therefore means that when the audience may view someone related to the Pakistani culture on the road etc, the audience can be very judgmental by think wrong about everyone associated with this culture which is a type of prejudice and discrimination. Therefore, this is why I beleive this video of the film can also link to the video as it can suggests a bad name to the culture and the audience can make up their own judgments up about this culture.