Media essay

23:44
In this clip of hotel Babylon the audience is presented with the representational issue of immigrants. How should the audience react to them? The moral route where they are seen as people or the medias representation of them being like animals, and that they don't deserve the right to be treated fairly.

In the first scene where Charlie a hotel employee is confronted by uniformed police the audience hears a sound motif, this is the sound heard when the locker is closed, it helps to set the scene for the audience as the sound if played before a establishing shot is show. The transition into the establishing shot is a close up tracking shot that uses a pan to follow the character, close ups are usually used to give emotion or to subconsciously tell the audience who they should side in , through the use of this shot the director has put the audiences backing behind charlie rather than the police, this can also be seen through the mise en scene, Charlie is like the underdog he is on his own whereas the police is a pair, shown with a two shot also sound is a big factor here to do with the placement of the audience, once the police come into shot some non-diegetic sound is used, it is fast paced and makes the audience think "the game is on". Hotel Babylon like most other British tv drama uses continuity editing, this is seen where the over the shoulder shot of Charlie from the police then cuts to a over the shoulder shot of the police from charlies perspective however it is on a dolly and tracks them.

The next scene the sound bridges the cut, it starts with a graceful push dolly shot gliding into the lady behind the counter, ambient sound is present in the form background speech. This is then cut to the immigration officer opening the door, making the shot of the lady at the counter seem to be a short take as the cut takes the audience by surprise. Looking back at the perfect glide that camera operator used to frame the lady the audience is give the complete opposite with this officer. The non-diegetic music gets louder, the camera looks like it is hand held and the camera is pulled back giving the impression that the man is aggressive. While the conversation is taking place shot/reverse shot is used to show the characters faces, the director has deliberately made the camera hand held, this gives it a more tense feel possibly portraying the lady's nerves. The uniform in which the lady is dressed in is a white suit, the man a black suit. This lack of standardized uniform portrays there importance possibly a clash of authority whereas she has power in the hotel the man has the law. This lack of uniform is re enforced when we are shown Ben he is dressed in a black suit with a name badge showing his lower authority.

The new few takes we see are very clever, the director has mixed both Charlie and Ben running with a action  match, the camera is held in a fixed position only panning to follow them, even in this fixed position it is still hand held giving it a small sway. The camera is then positioned in a office looking down on Jackie. When she enters the kitchen the audience can see something isn't quite right. She is going against the media's representation of illegal immigrants, shes helping them. This can be seen through the shot used, it isnt like a normal shot as it has items that are blocking the line of sight of the camera usually nothing gets between the camera and main focus. Also the camera is hand held, when it is moved its dragged and rotated a tiny amount however this gives it a great effect making it feel like its a rush. The camera is positioned behind some form of bars, possibly foretelling the future of one of the immigrants. Once in this small room the audiences view on illegal immigrants starts to get molded into what the director wants them to think, through the use of extreme close ups and close ups the audience is forced to face the reality that illegal immigrants are people. In this room there is a constant sound, possibly non-diegetic its like a rumble constantly  however it is only noticed when a cutaway is used to show one of the illegal immigrants. It is used to keep a sense of tension. When she realizes that this man is missing the camera is pushed up into her face and she shows what seems to be a facial expression associated with worry. The illegal immigrants clothes are very standard. Whereas the legal workers appear to have there own individuality the illegal's are all wearing a standard uniform, this follows the media's representation of them just being workers not a human being. Adam is a great character  to juxtapose the media's representation, he even says "I wasn't always a cleaner" this makes the audience fully back the illegal immigrants.

The director has now made the audience change their view of illegal immigrants now he throws a spanner in the works by using this Jaws like shot of the illegal immigrant being caught. It starts with a close up of his face and the lift in the background then the focal point changed from his face to the lift. We then have a change in shot this show is a hand held push, it gives the impression of the perspective of the immigration officers. However the facial expression of the illegal immigrant is used to remind the audience that they should be sided with him. The next scene is in the hotel lobby, the illegal immigrant is pushed into the frame in a rough mannor possibly to sujest to the actors that play the public in this scene that they are dangerous. Jackie follows the officer only to back down once he confronts her.

Future of the BFI

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/british-film/21799/upcoming-british-films-you-don’t-want-to-miss


So what is the future of the BFI like ?
It seems we are making a lot of horror films , this can be seen through the films like :
Grabbers
Even tho its technically Irish, this film has revived great feedback from the newspapers, staring Russell tovey means it can be compared to shawn of the dead except its about aliens that are allergic to human blood, they get drunk as much as possible to defend themself from the alien invasion.

Sightseers
Yet again a mix of comedy an horror, there must be something that us Brits like about horror and comedy, set at a British caravan set to come to cinemas in late December

Guinea pigs

This is about a some drug test subjects that get side effects that make them become crazy, it has won a lot of prase due to its documentary style filming.


The quiet ones
This is a film where a group of people are gathered with the intention of creating a poltergeist, it will be released in 2013
It's staring the man behind Sherlock jared Harris


In general most British films have a small budget and it seems that we are addicted to these horror / comedy mixes. Our films also seem to be headlining out own British talent.

I personally think these upcoming films will do quite well, ive seen a quite recent british film called cockneys vs zombies, i loved it, it combined the cockney stereotype. And i love this mix of scifi and comedy like the paraonormal in the quiet ones and zombies in cockneys vs zombies.

Sound

How to talk about sound:

DON’T GET DRAWED IN look at the but don’t let it pull you into the story line

Compare what we see on screen to what we hear, this could give you hints about diegetic or non-diegetic sounds

Look at the connotations on some music types, eg slow piano would be sad or reflective and fast music could be seen as.

If there is a voiceover, listen what tense it is spoken in, look how it is presented to the audience, is it talking to the audience ( direct address).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeDTh8IWthY

Sound is a very important thing to look at when analysing a piece of media, the audience can be subconsciously lured to feel a emotion, like in this clip we see music that is used to build tension and music to make the audience reflect on what they have just seen, this is slow music usually with classical instruments like a piano. This clip uses ambient sound that is out of the field of sight, this would be the fire alarm. Most of the sound in the clip is diegetic meaning that is it comes from something that is actually in the scene eg the fire alarm ( we don’t see it but it is an object that is in the scene)  the kids and the teachers.  The fire alarm could be seen as a form of a sound bridge as it continues between most of the scenes just varying in its volume. The only non-diegetic sound we hear is in the form of some music, this is fast paced and only really used once we see that people are trapped, a really weird thing is that the audience only really notices the music when we are taken back the action.  When we are shown this scene with fire or smoke we are presented with these sound motifs, these are sounds that are stereotypically linked with people or scene; we hear the stereotypical roaring of the fire and the occasional coughing of characters. 

Sound

Diegetic sound – sound that comes from a person or object in the diegesis (the world of the story) and seen within the field of vision.

Ambient sound – background sound belonging to the diegesis but not always in the field of vision. Ambient sound within the field of vision may include the hubbub of a crowd or the quiet sound car radio or engine over which the dialogue takes place. Ambient sound outside the field of vison might be a juke box downstairs, traffic outside or birdsong.

Non-diegetic sound – sound that comes from nothing within the field of vision and has been added afterwards in the editing process. The clearest examples of this are soundtrack music or a voiceover (see below). Sound can be added non-diegetically but still belong to something within the diegesis – eg the blaring car radio in Criminal Justice may have been added afterwards in the editing stage.

Synchronous sound – where the sound is synchronised with the object emitting that sound –as in lip-sync where the actor’s mouth moves exactly in time with the words we hear.

Asynchronous sound – this is where the sound track is deliberately out of sync (out of time) with what we see. It is a rare effect in TV Drama. A good example, again at the end of The Graduate is where we have a montage of faces and voices in the church, all shouting at Ben but the voices do not synchronise with the faces we see.

Sound effects – sounds added to the visuals in editing. They may be naturalistic – the sound of traffic outside the window added to a shot filmed in a studio – or unnaturalistic, perhaps for comic purpose (eg a ‘boing’ sound) or to remind us we are watching a construct (eg the ‘whooshing sound that accompanies crash zooms in the Bleak House extract).

Sound motif – a sound associated with a character or a place. This could be the humming of machinery associated with a factory or the threatening buzzing of a power station or clicks, whirrs and beeps in a computer lab. A character might have a particular musical figure that plays when they appear or when they sort out a problem. James Bond films have four related motifs in the theme tune, each indicating a narrative turning point eg, the start or the resolution of a chase sequence.

Sound bridge – this is where the sound (either diegetic or non-diegetic) continues across one or more cuts/transitions. Examples include the music running under the montage of a day’s work in The Street or the phone ring tone we hear when Joe Miller dials his phone in Criminal Justice and continues when we cut to shots of his empty house when the phone he has called is ringing.

Dialogue­ – the sound made by characters talking to each other. Sometimes this is re-recorded in a studio with the actors attempting to lip-sync to the footage: this is called Foley recording.

Voiceover­ – where a voice from outside the diegesis gives the audience information. Often this voice tells us the story and may be a character within the story – a detective, for example. This device was popular in American Film Noir in the 1940s/50s: in the film Sunset Boulevard (1950) the voiceover is given by a character who is already dead at the start of the film!

Mode of address – this covers the manner in which the narrative comes across to the audience. This includes the style of language used by the characters or the narrator. If characters of an educated class are represented, the mode of address will involve higher register language than characters of a lower class. The mode of address might cover the accent or dialect used by characters of a particular regional identity. Mode of address would also cover the way in which a commentator or narrator speaks directly to the audience.

Direct address – when a narrator or a character speaks directly to the audience, not to characters within the diegesis. This technique breaks verisimilitude because it acknowledges the presence of the audience.

Sound mixing – mixes sound from various sources using a multi-track mixing desk. Much of the dialogue can be remixed afterwards because the spoken words are recorded using one or more boom microphones and can have their volume changed relative to other sounds during post-production.

Sound perspective – sound recording that helps us place a sound as either near or distant or coming from a particular place within the diegesis.

Editing

How to write about editing, you can talk about things like:
Short takes these are about how long a particular shot is, can be used to keep the audience on edge.
Long takes These are shots that play a long time with out a cut, can be used to build tension
Cutaways these show another scene usually to show a contrast
Action match This is where a action scene is shown at multiple angles eg a explosion show from the outside then a shot of it from the inside
Graphic match Where a shot is used to make a transition eg a washing machine spinning then cutting to a scene where water is spiralling down a plug.
Jump cut where the subject of a shot changes but the background stay the same giving it a jerky feel.
Visible editing this is where a director has deliberately asked for the editing to be obvious eg a fade to black can be used to show a transition of time.
Invisible editing where the editing has been hidden eg very sharp cuts that could not be noticed in the heat of the moment.

Editing is used as a mostly  works on the subconscience this is due to the audience being tied up in the plot, they are also used to build tension as a long take may be used to make a person what could be described as paranoid, just waiting for something to happen.

Babylon editing

This clip uses a lot of eye line match and reverse eye line match, these are where the camera shots are manipulated to show a character looking away into the distance then showing what that character is looking at. I like how this editing technique works especially well with women, in hotel bablyon you can see from the managers facial expressions that something is wrong, next I see something that is very clever, it is a mix of a action match and a graphic match, at first glimpse the person running down the corridor is the same person however its not it is Benjamin and Charlie the director has combined the movement of Benjamin with that of Charlie, this may not be substantial but all these little edits build up and shows the audience things that they consciously might not understand. When Jackie realises that one of the illegal immigrants is missing a cutaway is used to show the man, this combines with the music is used to build tension as it may only be a short shot the time the audience spends watching her build tension about what is going to happen with the immigrant. The director of this episode wants it to feel life like, this can be seen through the use of invisible cut, there is no real emphersis on change of shot eg no fade to black is used.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nuu5tMdcg2M

04:10 onward

A very impressive action shot is used to put a spectacular amount of empersis of this explosion, only to be followed by a shot of the local residents rushing out of the pub in a western salon manor with both doors flying open. The editing of this clip seems to be very dependent on what I call sound markers, these can be things such as screams or bang or key words, this can be seen when kim starts screaming an insert shot is used showing a close up of kim and Christian holding Patrick back throughout this scene multiple shot/reverse shots are used the take the audience back to the fact the B&B is on fire the next marker for a shot is Zainab barging through this could be seen as a action shot as the cameraman struggles to keep her in shot another camera’s footage is used. When we first see Masood the camera is being pushed in when he is about halfway top his feet a action match is used to give the audience a perspective of his proximity to the fire, we then see a cutaway where the audience is show a dilemma, Afia. She is like a wild goose in a damsel’s dress, We as the audience know she is safe yet the characters don’t, this is almost ironic as we watch them risk there life for nothing. Once again we are show these violent explosion the shot may not be slow motion however these explosion seem to have a lot of flames and debris that we can se, this seems un nature keeping the audience on the edge of their seats. When reflecting on this clip you realise that 90% of the time we see the residents it is one continuous shot, only after seeing this multiple times you notice this, this long take is used with the dramatic explosions to give the audience a sense of uncertainty , we as humans get paranoid, this natural paranoia is used with this  long take to create maximum tension, each explosion being a small climax. We as the audience are then treated to another crosscut which involves someone inside the building bringing the tension to an all-time high.