Monday 18 December 2017

Hammer Films

  1. Hammer films is a film company which was founded in  November 1934, it is now one of the oldest film companies existing. In the past they have made movies such as 'The  Curse Of Frankenstein', The horror of Dracula', and more recently 'The Women In Black', and the 'Shawshank Redemption'.
  2. Hammer Films are known for their defining films of the horror genre, however only one third of their movies are made in the specific horror genre. The rest of the movies are sci-fi, psychological and thrillers. 
  3. From the start up of the company to the 50's, the content used for Hammer Films was predominantly crime/thriller kinds of movies. However in the 50's they started to make horror films.
  4.  The company made history when making the first fully colour film, 'The Curse Of Frankenstein'.
  5. Their movies mostly consisted of gothic horror movies, however in the 70's as colour television was emerging, box office revenues decreased. From this Hammer films realised that movies under the genre of gothic horror were not appealing to the audience anymore.
  6.  The film 'Women In Black' which was released in 2012, was Hammer Film's first theoretical ghost story movie. The movie made $130 million worldwide, therefore making it the bigger indie horror films ever. This also leads on to Hammer Films making its first ever sequel, of 'The Women In Black: Angle of death.'

Thursday 7 December 2017

Stupid girls music video analysis

Pink's Music video "Stupid girls" was released in 2006 and shows how girls in todays day and age tend to care more about their body image and how they look rather than their personality and how intelligent they are. The video represents women as being 'plastic bimbo's', only wanting to be thin and beautiful to get attention from men, and not for themselves.




The video starts of with a little girl having two figure on to her shoulders. These two figures represent the binary opposites of an angel and a devil. The angel wants the little girl to chose what she wants to do instead of conforming to societies pressures of becoming only invested in her outwards appearance. It can be denoted that the girl is a tom boy, represented by the rugby jersey that she is wearing, however she is pressured into liking typical 'girly' stuff in order to fit in.




The use of the lyric "What happened to the dream of a girl president? She's dancing in the video next to 50 Cent", can show how the feminist movements of the 1920's, 60's and 80's, worked hard for men and women to be equal, however women of today are turning back on the hard work in which women such as Emily Davison who died for her cause. This can be shown as the women represented within the video, only care for their public image. This lyric can also show how women are perceived as sexual objects, and this has been reiterated through the radical feminists argument by Andrea Dworkin. Dworkin's argues that pornographic representations of women, which can be seen in this video and in many other music videos, has socialized men into acts of rape and sexual violence in their real lives. The next lyric, "They travel in packs of two and three with their itsy bitsy doggies, and their teeny-weeny tees " can show the type of woman represented within this music video are more concerned on material objects and showing off as much skin as possible in order to satisfy the male gaze. The reference to "itsy bitsy doggies" could be a reference to Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Kim Kardashian and Brittany Spears, as they were major female icons of the 2000, Another representation of these icons is the scene which is supposed to look like a sex tape, as both Pink and the male actor are in their under garments. The use of this scene could be a reference to how Kim Kardashian got famous, due to her sex tape.




The use of the lyric further on within the music video, "The disease is growing, it's epidemic" can show how Pink is acting as if its a disease. This can show how the media has polluted young girls minds in doing everything for a males attention, as well as in order to compete with other girls. While this lyric is sung, the image of pink with markings along her body where potential plastic surgery could be done, i.e.- around the breasts, making her waist smaller and getting rid of excess stomach fat. This can show how due to one or two star, most girls are catching on to this widespread disease of being perfect and not caring for knowledge and inner beauty. But rather being tanned, curvy and thin.




Pink makes a mention of bulimia, a very serious disease however talks about it s if it is a joke. she enters the scene saying "Oh My God I've had so many calories, like 300", and a girl next to her is making her self throw up. Pink asks for the toothbrush and puts it down her throat while shouting "I want to be skinny!". The scene shows another side to bulimia as many young teenage girls can be influenced quickly therefore if they see someone of known power, for example a celebrity making themselves vomit in order to become skinner, younger girls within their teens are likely to do this as well. However the scene is insensitive to people suffering from bulimia as it is a mental illness which shouldn't be made fun of through Pink mocking most causes in the music video.


The pink music video stupid girls is a post feminism text as it is being used as a contract with the prevailing ideologies of feminism. The ideas can show that women have the right to do what ever they want, and now they are fighting for equality amongst everyone therefore it does not matter whether or not a women prefers to look after the way she looks more rather than doing activity's such as sports. As well as this it could potentially be represented as women wanting to look nice for themselves as well as for the male gaze, as they have the desire to be considered attractive to the other gender, in heterosexual views. Moreover this matter, it can show how the text is in fact both going against the views of historical feminism as well as being apart of the post feminism theories

Saturday 2 December 2017

Narrative Theory

Narrative theory is when something needs to happen within a narrative. When there is conflict as a source of narrative.

Levi-Strauss

  • Levi-Strauss talks about binary opposites. This means when there are different sets of values crashing. When one set of values become more dominant.
  • This is usually represented by the struggle between protagonist and antagonist, good and evil.
Narrative Structure

       1.Equilibrium
The first part of a story which is usually happy and all the characters are very content within the storyline. 

       2. A Disruption
A problem disrupts happiness. 

      3.Realistation
The part when all of the characters realise that there is a problem, and there is generally chaos.

     4.Restore Order
When characters resolve and repair all problems.

     5.Equilibrium Again
All problems are resolved and happiness amongst the characters are restored.

However in some story lines, they may start with a disruption, or start with another part of the sequence.

Ronald Barthes's codes
  • Barthes tell us that there is two different codes that both create suspense. The enigma code and action code.   
  • Enigma code-unanswered questions which can create suspense, tension and empathy.
  • Action code-An action which prompts another action which can cause suspense.
Vladimir Propp
  • Sphere of action.
  • When a character has interactions within an imaginary circle.
In the world of Propp, you have:
  • Hero
  • Villain
  • Princess
  • False Hero
  • Helper
  • Dispatcher
  • Princess's Father