CASE STUDY: Kiss of the Vampire (1963)

Using the technical codes, explain how the film poster creates meaning about the following elements for its audience:

Genre conventions (horror and vampire sub-genre)
Representations of gender
Cultural contexts (e.g. social change, equality, 1960s pop culture)

Make sure you analyse the poster as it would appear to its 1960s audience and research the era carefully.

The poster for Kiss the Vampire is a product from the era, that acknowledges the 2nd wave feminism being developed through the main image. The woman at the middle of the frame is the only active one, mimicking a heroine due to her posture, (fighting off the bats). She's a direct juxtaposition from the woman at the left, representing the 'desired woman' of the early 1960s, submissive due to her body language and facial expressions. However they have a similarity, their clothing is the same, a dress, a symbol of tradition still ruling over the conventions of gender roles.
This poster may not be challenging the circumstances of equality in the 1960s society, but rather be evoking the fear of the loss of power by the males. This is conveyed through the binary oppositions of the brave woman and the weak male, indicated by the posture (kneeling) and the ripped shirt. It could be the poster's illustrator's way of representing theirs and the main audience's fear: social change.
The audience would be interested in the genre of horror, specifically the sub-genre of vampires and the supernatural. The poster effectively targets them due to the iconography of bats, a castle, blood... that is generally associated with vampires as they're linked to the darkness. The mis-en-scene in the background contains a bleak colour palette, with mostly greys and blacks along with some red. Furthermore there's more straightforward links like the lexis of "vampire", which immediately establishes the eerie mood the film will probably have. The formal clothing of the vampire, a black cape with buttoned shirt is very telling of the time, as in the 1960 vampires were conveyed that way, as wealthy supernaturally unreachable beings, not necessarily attractive (i.e. the "scary vampire" is scared himself). This is a representation which has evolved along with pop culture, with vampires being automatically linked to beauty and charm e.g. Twilight, The Vampire Diaries... Nevertheless, the myth has always been linked to sex, romance and desire, proved by the poster's predominance of red, colour imagery that symbolises those conventions.

CASE STUDY: WaterAid ad. (brief notes)

+ Effective as it doesn't comply with the general conventions of charity ads (e.g. creating guilt and shame on the audience)- Gerbner's theory of cultivation 

How does this charity advert use technical codes to provoke responses, emotions and connections with its target audience?

+ DIRECT- the typical voiceover of a man (part of target audience) is replaced with a song sung by the actual person the money is going to- stronger connection with audience as it is a 70s/80s melody.
Link to target audience: western middle-class
the wealthy- bleak connotations of establishing shot (cramped plant pot and radio + drizzle) is juxtaposed with the warm shot of the water that dominates the frame, shining as there's sunlight on the background (water for good)- Binary depositions
+ PERSONALISATION- "Claudia". Several close-ups of her, she's placed in the middle of the frame, turning her indirect mode of address into a more direct one. Shaky camera-shots- creates a more realistic and personal insight into her life, supported by the background ambiance (audio codes) with sound effects of grasshoppers.
+ POSITIVE- overall warm lighting and colour, an affectionate tone continued with the clothing and the body expressions- upbeat
iconography- crops growing represents health and growth, similar to water- Semiotics
Song- message of hope, evoking a heartening tone. Sound bridge- connection between both worlds

It does stick to some techniques in charity ads with the statistic "650 million people still don't have access to clean drinking water", however as it is not accompanied with negative visual elements it stands out. 

How is Africa represented in the advert?
The representations in the charity advert AVOIDS CLICHES like pessimistic close-ups of sad children, melancholic stringed music... Instead, the positiveness is carried out through the clothing as there's a quick shot of a child running in a school uniform, indicating they are healthy and being educated.
In the end they're smiling, and the shot is blurred out by the sunlight (motif), so the positive theme is continued smoothly throughout - Semiotics
Active audience- it's up to them to imagine how the lives of the children would be without their donations

Extended Exam Q. (Section A Q1)

Compare the representations of gender and ethnicity in Beyonce's Run the World and Dizzie Rascal's Dream- (30 marks)

Beyonce and Dizzie Rascal both hold different focuses in their music videos through their narrative with Run the World overall being a women empowerment song through the war between women and men (gender) and Dream a musical work relating to the place of Black people in a white-dominated musical industry (ethnicity). 
Beyonce represents women in a way that doesn't comply with the status quo positively, showing them as strong warriors. There are various scenes which indicate so, like the establishing wide shot of a woman riding a horse and the wide shot of Beyonce holding two dogs with chains. In both instances, animals are used as iconography to represent control and toughness, often associated with males, therefore she's defying gender roles in her song due to the binary oppositions between the women and the men, which supports Levi-Strauss' theory. Dizzie has a dominant woman as a consistent figure throughout his music video as well, however, she's not represented positively. This is denoted through her robotic-ness with close-ups of her disapproving facial expressions and the narration "He's such a rascal". She's not supposed to be likeable but rather controlling and judging, as she plays the song by which Dizzie has to come out and perform, a metaphor with a similar nature to Beyonce's as the woman is in power as well but in this case, it holds negative connotations. 
On the other hand, you could argue both artists do stick to certain toxic expectations. Certain shots of Run the World appear to be sexualised, for instance, the various slow-motion close-ups of Beyonce's face and the quick shot of her hands, with jewellery. These denote seductiveness, through a very controlled fabricated image, signified by the jewellery on her hand, a prop to show the worry of society for acceptance through wealth and beauty which links to Barthes' theory of semiotics. Furthermore, this is hinted in 'Dream' as well, with the Dizzie saying : "This is too sensible for me man". It seems to be mimicking the idea of 'men don't cry', perhaps unintentionally as in the shots of violence there are only male puppets present, with female puppets only appearing in two shots, walking and strolling a baby, respectively. 
Overall, both music videos contain stereotypical aspects. Stereotypes are represented through both videos' interpretation of street life. Run the World has props like cars and bins on fire along with riot shields and chains to depict rebellion, in a video dominated by black people, which it could be argued doesn't defy but complies with their association with criminality. 'Dream' also contains props such as stolen TVs, graffiti, and police cars, portraying the same stereotype, demonstrating both music videos follow Gilroy's theory of post-colonialism as this made-up idea is still common in the media of today. Nevertheless, both music videos also tackle these stereotypes in a challenging way, defying social ones as well. Through the lyrics "Help me raise a glass for the college grads" and "try to keep school part of your plans" both Beyonce and Dizzie acknowledge the cliche of young people dropping out, challenging it.
Power is outlined differently in the texts, with Run the World showing a black woman in power positively, as she's free. This is indicated in the mid-shot of her breaking out into dance, which opposes the rest of the people standing still, and the two men next to her following her every move, as if they were her puppets. In Dream, the black person is not in power, as the song's undertones suggests that Dizzie's freedom by which he can perform and be 'string-less' unlike the rest of the puppets around him, is only an illusion as he's being allowed to take that position. The difference of scale between him and the white lady juxtaposes the same scale of Beyonce and her male dancers, demonstrating Dizzie's place could be being threatened in the music industry, unlike Beyonce's. This is developed by the initial and final shots of the music videos, with Dream's having mid-shots of the white woman both times, and Run the World going from a shot of Beyonce to one of all the women. In this way, it is suggested Dream has negative representations in general, as it is very tightly focused on the reactions of the white woman, following a circular narrative structure, whereas Run the World has a linear one. This is perhaps due to the different time periods, as the early 2000s wasn't an era as progressive as the successive decade. Therefore, there's a link to Gaunlett's theory of identity. Nowadays there's more social awareness, hence the increasing diversity in the industries, and artists being able to develop their star persona regardless of their musical genre, unlike Dizzie. 

Film marketing Project

Mean girls trailer:

KEY TEXT: Dream MV

Narrative:

The main message of the song is about Dizzie Rascal's dreams and how he got to the top. It is added to through the visual elements of the video and techniques employed. For example, the iconography of the microphone suggests that it is only once he gets successful that he starts to have a voice to be listened to by British society.

The video confirms the message and content of the song. The shots of the urban scene on top of the piano recreate a stereotypical version of the urban scene, with graffiti and skateboards being employed as props. There's a binary deposit of community vs police through some shots. It can also somewhat subvert the message due to the difference of scale from the white lady and Rascal, which evokes his place in Britain, a harmless artist only let into the British music scene once he changed his music from grime to a more pop sound. This also evokes the way some of his critics saw him, as a sellout. The positivity in the lyrics contrasts with the facial expressions of the woman, as she's very robotic and artificial, smiling and nodding when he says positive messages like "try and make school part of your plans". Furthermore, she frames the video, the initial and final shots being focused on her, indicating she controls Dizzie in some way and he hasn't really achieved success. This implies black people's place in the industry is threatened (or was threatened at the time) by the traditional British society.

Representation:

The video refers to 'traditional white' UK culture, creating a binary opposition with modern multicultural Britain. The female sitting at the piano represents the mainstream public's reaction to Grime when it first emerged from its underground beginnings in London. She is judging him on everything he says and does (polite disapproval), and is shocked by the violent nature of his words and actions. She's clearly wealthy, depicted by the piano, which also represents more classical genres of music. She never had to deal with the problems that Grime artists from cities did, therefore shocked and almost intimidated by what she saw, naturally pushing it away, just like the public did when Grime was on the rise.

The music video creates binary oppositions between different stereotypes. For example, the old wealthy white woman and the young less well-off black man. The 1950s sitting room has a mise en scene with a grand piano and a muted colour pallet to make it seem old fashioned, with reference to the black and white TV from the 1950s. It could also be to highlight Dizzee in his bright red hoodie which is a commonly used film technique. The room is made to look like it is in an upper class house, shown by the grand piano which implies wealth. There is another world that is constructed on top of the grand piano, a city setting with police brutality and graffiti. Because these worlds would usually be so far apart it creates a strong juxtaposition between the living room and the scene being acted out inside of it. It highlights that although the people in these expensive houses didn’t see the events in the city, it was still happening. The people in these houses would usually be very sheltered from violence, so to have it depicted on top of a grand piano which is a symbol of wealth, it creates a powerful message which targets the people who had this wealth but did nothing to help those being mistreated in the worse off parts of the country.

Intertextuality:

The lyrics "Happy talky talky happy talk, Talk about things you like to do, You got to have a dream, If you don't have a dream, How you gonna have a dream come true?" references to the musical South Pacific. The musical is about an US Navy nurse who falls for a French plantation owner, but leaves him once she finds out he's the father of two mixed-race children. She eventually comes around and leaves her prejudice aside. There's a sound clip at the beginning and Dizzee acknowledges it saying "This is too sensible for me man", which also references Captain Sensible's cover of "Happy Talk" in 1982. It is common for Grime to incorporate sound snippets from other media productions, so post-modernism is usual in Grime.

Post-colonialism (Gilroy):