Representation of Jack in Lost essay comments

• When writing a representation essay i need to avoid retelling the narrative over and over again, as that gains me no marks.
• Be more specific and detailed about the evidence i use from the text/film.
• Link all my evidence to how Jack is represented, some of my evidence didn't even show a representation of Jack.
• Consider mentioning stereotypes within the action genre of Lost.

Kings Speech case study

The King's Speech is a British film about King George VI who has a stammer. He ends up becoming King after his brother abdicated from the throne. He is considered to be unfit to be King but with the help of a very strange speech therapist, Lionel Logue, George ends up finding his voice and leads Britain through the World War 2.

Britishness

What makes a film British?

From the government: “Most people would define a ‘British’ film with reference to obvious cultural elements such as: a setting in the UK or a focus on British people abroad; a predominantly British cast; a storyline about some aspect of British life — past, present or future — or notably by, or based on a work by, a British author.”

But recently less British films are made in Britain or have British actors in it such as Slumdog Millionaire which is classed as a British film. But what classes this film as a British film is that the director and writer of the film are both British, so the film was created by British people, which can class films as British weather they are filmed in Britain and have British actors or not.

Box Office in the UK

The film it’s self on the opening weekend made a huge £3,523,102 in the UK on 7th January 2011 which made double the amount Slum dog Millionaire made on its opening weekend, £1.83m. The Kings Speech over all made a huge gross of $138,795,342, which is brilliant being as the film started with a small budget of $15,000,00.

Films Reception

IMDb give the Kings speech a rating of 8.1/10 and it got a mega score of 88/100 while Rotten Tomatoes gave the film an advert rating of 8.6/10 and 94% of the audience liked the film. With good reviews such as ‘The King's Speech features a fantastic, awards courting performance by Firth and is also brilliantly written, resulting in a surprisingly tense and very entertaining watch.’ (Rotten tomatoes) and ‘It's refreshing to see a historical drama avoid grand gestures and sweeping melodrama in favor of smaller more intimate stories.’ (Rotten tomatoes). ‘There was abundant humor without the film ever becoming a comedy, drama without dreariness, and many deeply moving moments. I can't praise this film enough. It boosted my appreciation of the human capacity to become our best selves, and rise to meet even the most daunting challenges’ (IMDb) and ‘The story line is all about his stuttering, but underneath all that are suppressed memories from childhood, growing up in the shadow of an elder brother, perpetual negative reinforcement from a domineering father, etc. It's a psychoanalytical look at a well-known royal family, and while I can't vouch for its absolute veracity, it gives a rare glimpse into the lives of people we wouldn't otherwise observe at this level of intimacy’ (IMDb).

Phillip French from the guardian who praises the film says that ‘the film is a major achievement, with Firth presenting us with a great profile in courage, a portrait of that recurrent figure, the stammerer as hero’ and that ‘It is the work of a highly talented group of artists who might be regarded as British realists’. But he also criticizes that ‘the film is not without its odd faults, the truly annoying one being the representation of Winston Churchill (Timothy Spall) as a supporter of George during the abdication’.

The film cant come without criticism, some reviews mention that the film contains a number of errors about the historical accuracy. The font used in the text in the BBC broadcasting room not being a font that was even available till the 50’s and also that some women were spotted wearing seamless stockings which were not available until later in life. Overall the film was criticized but the positives out way the negatives.

Web 2.0 and Exchange

The film itself had its own Facebook that advertised the film, posting posters and trailers as well as director comments and actors comments to attract a wider audience that are available on social networking sites. The film had a number of YouTube clips posted about it like people giving reviews and expectations of the film, for example a Youtube clip by beyond the trailer got 70,102 views. There were reviews and comments on the film in newspapers such as in the guardian by Phillip French and in the telegraph by Sukhdev Sandhu.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GBS1QUOMMU&feature=related

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/8244121/The-Kings-Speech-review.html

The film has an appeal, not only to a British audience because it shows a story where the royal family are seen in private and show personal troubles, but also to an international audience - members of the old British colonies in particular - because it shows a story where a "commoner" from the colonies develops a friendship with the King. This draws in a large audience from American who love their connection to the British monarchy and the idea that someone like them from a colony country could develop a friendship with a member of the royal family. Also gives Americans more information on the royals and that they are more normal and easy to connect with then you think, shows them in a different more common light.

The film’s origins

David Seidler the writer read about George VI's life after overcoming a stuttering condition he endured during his youth. He started writing about the relationship between the monarch and his therapist as early as the 1980s, but at the request of the King's widow, Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, postponed work until her death in 2002. He later rewrote his screenplay for the stage to focus on the essential relationship between the two protagonists. Nine weeks before filming began, Logue's notebooks were discovered and quotations from them were incorporated into the script. Therefore this film originated from a true, real life story about an event that happened within the royal family.

The Finance

The UK Film council contributed towards the financial backing for the film alongside Prescience films and UK Film finance company that showed an immediate interest in the films making. Harvey Weinstein in the USA also became a huge investor of the film and together these companies have made $12 million of the budget.

Production companies

The production companies of the film were Weinstein Company, The UK Film Council, Momentum Pictures, See-Saw Films as well as other companies. See-Saw, a British/Australian company, financed and produced the film but by getting deals with key distribution partners such as The Weinstein Company (USA) Momentum Pictures (UK) Transmission (Australia) and Alliance Film (Canada). This is a good example of a film that can receive a huge global success and without the help of huge Hollywood studios.

Distribution and marketing issues

The trailers used for the UK and US differ, as the UK trailer shows more of Colin Firths character and his personal journey, overcoming his stammer and becoming King. But the US trailer shows more of Geoffrey Rush’s character and how he plays a huge part in helping George overcome his struggle with speech. In the US trailer Helen Bonham Carter’s character refers to her husband as the King rather than the Duke of York which is what she calls him in the UK trailer, which makes the US trailer want to seem more British to attract the American audience that love the British Royals so much. The UK trailer as well uses a well-known British quote from Shakespeare "some men are born great, others have greatness thrust upon them" this adds to the sense of Britishness in the UK trailer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dq2IT299EKo UK Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzI4D6dyp_o US Trailer

The various posters and trailers all play an important part in the marketing of the film. The posters were placed everywhere, on the sides of buses, billboards, bus stops etc. The idea of the posters is to grab people's attention, having them everywhere means people can't avoid them, which makes them want to watch the trailer and find out more about the film. The trailer then aims draw the audience in completely and to get them to see it.

Major issues facing British film makers

“It's clear that British cinema has been weathering the global recession well” said UK Film Council chief executive John Woodward. He said the sectors of production, distribution and exhibition were "firing on all cylinders". But he said the marketplace for financing smaller, independently-produced British films has become more difficult. This was partly as a result of the overall economic slowdown and partly down to "the increasingly tough transition from the analogue to the digital age". However, it has been a record of couple of years at the UK box office overall from 2009-2012, with takings of £944m and the highest admissions since 2002 (173.5 million) thanks to films like Kings Speech, Slum dog millionaire and Avatar.

Tom Hooper mentions that the use of big name stars is a large part of the appeal to films and that also is very expensive. So although the digital revolution has change and given the British film industry opportunities film makers are still restricted by costs of marketing and distribution, and also the ability to make a film with wide appeal with blockbuster stars.

Dredd Film Presentation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z-N0A14Lz8

Seven Areas of Representation, Gender.

Gender definition:

Stereotypes associated with gender, males and females:


Gender is the state of being male or female (typically used with reference to social and cultural differences rather than biological ones).

Men:

Aggressive

controled by sex
Sexual Predators
Non emotional

Messy

Athletic

Math and Science Oriented

CEO

Money Maker

Women:  

Submissive
Sexual Objects
Sexual

Emotional

Quiet

Neat/Clean

Clumsy

Artsy

Housewife

Child rearing 

A common stereotype which is commonly associated to families within our society is that men are the part of the relationship who are known to go to work and earn the money to support the family. Then the women are expected to stay at home, look after the children, do the washing/cleaning and have the tea ready for when the husband arrives home from work. 

Another stereotype of gender is that the females are thought of sexual objects to males and that males are thought to be sexual predators and evolve around having sex.

Examples of stereotypes in media:

This is a music video from the song shes so lovely by scouting for girls. In this video a very attractive women enters the bowling allay. She wearing red high heels, tight clothing and smiles cheekily at all the men as well as biting her lip her gestures are very sexy which shows women as sexual objects and submissive over the looks from men. The body language and flirting she does makes females come across as sexual because of the looks and gestures. All the men are mouth dropping, stopping what they are doing, being distracted or acting silly because this women has come in. They all drop what they are doing to watch her which shows men as sexual predators and that their controlled by sex. One man gets up and pushes another man because he looked at his girlfriend, this shows men as aggressive over anything and little things. 

                                        
This is a clip from the program Rome. Because this clip is set in Rome and old times this proves that this representation of females staying at home and males going out and working is a old stereotype that isnt   In this clip at the start it shows a clear stereotype that women stay at home cook and clean and care for the children. But it also shows that men are non emotional as he shows no caring for the women as she cries which also shows that women are very emotional which is another stereotype. It also shows that men are the ones in the world of gender that go out and do the work as the men in this video are out fighting and working. At the end the man takes advantage of the women and treats her as a sexual object only and this shows men as sexual predators and women sexual objects to males.

Issues and problems that occur:
-Women become annoyed that men have the stereotype of holding the power in relationships and every day life. They believe and hope that women are not always at home cleaning and cooking they can get jobs and be the ones to bring in the money for the family also that man can't walk all over them and expect women to want sex and women feel they need to be respected more.
-Men on the other not believe they are aggressive that they can be caring and loving to others also that these stereotypes make males seem desperate which they are not always sexual predators.

Representation of jack in the first plane crash epsiode of lost.

The scene when jack saves a women from dying he notices her when attending to the pregnant women who he then leaves to help the dying women. When he first arrives at her side he completely takes control despite the fact that a life guard is already trying to help. Despite jack knowing this man is a life guard he tells him straight what he is doing wrong and takes control himself to save this women that makes jack seem very powerful and control as well as medically knowing what to do to bring someone back to life. In this scene there are a couple of mid shots that show not only jack, the life guard and the dying women but also everything going on the background. The plane in pieces and people running around frantically is shown to show that despite everything going on jack isn’t distracted and is dedicated to save this woman.  There was also a high shot looking down on jack resuscitating the women to emphasis what he’s doing and that he knows what he’s doing to help save this women which gives the impression he must be a doctor. There were diegetic sounds going one of people screaming and the power of the plane going which was over the top of the dialogue the life guard and jack were having and when jack was talking to himself. Having these noises in the background again show jacks dedication to saving this woman and that he isn’t easily distracted.

As soon as jack arrives at the crash he comes across as heroic and controlling, as he’s continuously helping people and telling others what to do. He finds a man crushed by a part of the plane and tries himself to lift the plane but sounds for others to come over and help save this man. When he calls people over to help and they listen this shows his power he has over people to tell them what to do. A close is used on his face when he tries to lift to piece of plane off the man to enhance his facial expressions as he’s trying his hardest to move this off a man, which shows his strength and again his dedication. Another close up was used on jacks face when he shouts for some others to help his emphasises his serious expressions and the control over others to help. Again there was diegetic sounds of the plane’s engine and screams of others but these noises doesn’t distract him and he’s still capable of shouting for others over these sounds, showing power and heroic status to be heard. He uses his tie that he’s wearing to help with the man’s wound, this shows his costume, as he’s wearing a tie and smart professional clothing, which gives impressions with what he’s doing helping a man’s wound that he could be a very important doctor.

When jack comes out from the jungle thee camera does a close up shot on his face to highlight his confusion. Then the camera pans round to show the beach to give a paradise impression on the island, this pan breaks the 180 degrees rule of panning round for 180 degrees. Doing this with the pan makes the audience look and feel disorientated as the camera pans round too far showing jack’s confusion and make the audience feel confused. Then the pan edits back to a close up on jacks face showing his facial expression of confusion and shock of being on an island. While the camera pans across the beach sounds of the plane crash start being heard. Sounds of screams and engine sounds slowly are edited into the scene, even on the close up of jack the sounds are amplified and he then runs off towards the sounds. This shows jack as confused and disorientated by the surroundings he is in and despite the paradise look of the island he still sticks to hearing the screams and worries despite the look of paradise.

Rihanna rude boy, Male gaze.



This music video by Rihanna represents women as sexual with her rude and dirty gestures and dancing but at the same she's showing with her lyrics that women can be dominant over males and hold the power which some women don't always show in their music.
The whole song itself is about sex and having sex which comes across being sexually active. The lyrics used are self explanatory, she wants sex and she wants the best and wants what she wants.
In the male gaze with what she is wearing little clothing which is in her culture but at the same time attracts male attention that she's ready and wants sex, desperate.

Male gaze in real life

Beyonce

Romantic or sexual look because she's unashamedly showing an erotic pose.

Seductive look as eyes slightly closed and small expressions are shown.

David Beckham

Romantic or sexual look because he's unashamedly showing an erotic pose.

seductive look because eyes slightly shut and small expressions are shown.