My Media Summer

MY MEDIA SUMMER 

(TV) Stepping Up: 

This programme was produced by the CBBC company and airs during September when students have returned to school. The idea of the programme is to show new Year 7 pupils that starting a new beginning at secondary school will be difficult but eventually things turn out better in the end. It's purpose is to give 12 year olds a better perspective on secondary school and to make them feel less worried about attending a more independent place. Each episode (5 in total) revolves around 1 main character who has a different situation and shows the audience how they adapt to their new environment and finds a solution to their problem.

The setting is quite dull; the lighting is limited in which gives a more realistic effect on the events taking place (it's not all sunshine and rainbows). There is a range of shots to reveal each character so their expression is seen clearly. The majority of shots include: wide, long, close ups and panning shot. As there is a lot of action that occurs during secondary school the panning shot is used to reveal the bigger picture so nothing important is cropped out.

There is a theme for transitions used to split up the episode. For example, one episode revolved around a skater girl so the transition included mini clips of her skating in front of a green screen and the background would be a cool colour effect- as shown below. 

 

Evidently, this programme includes many stereotypes. In the one episode, the 'skater girl' is a tom-boy but enrols at an all-girls school and she makes an enemy. This is a stereotype that mainly all-girls' schools include cat fights and childish behaviour. Unfortunately sometimes these stereotypes prove to be true. The producers show the many flaws in secondary school that adults know we could never escape from but for the newbies, they will believe that everything works out in the end. This is through adding well-known celebrities to play charcters such as Richard Whisker from 'Tracy Beaker Returns'. Young teenagers might believe that Whisker actually suffered bullying during his high school years.

Another way producers make their audience intrigued is by writing up the most common narratives. In another episode, Polly, a new Year 7 tries to take up the passion of her late mother's hobby: film-making but after snapping something she wasn't meant to see, Polly has to pay.

Children as young as 11, will take in that secondary school will have its ups and downs but eventually, after you solve issues with teachers, friends and parents, there is nothing to worry about. However, older children e.g. as old as 13, may think that the programme gives false hope to the younger viewers and everyone's life in high school is unique. There are only 5 story-lines so it's unlikely that every child who watches the show will relate to the characters. 

(TV) Free! Iwatobi swim club

This Japanese animated show is 20 minutes long and aired on a popular Japanese channel for teenagers however for foreign audiences like myself, it's available via Crunchyroll which is a free service and even has an app that is accessible on smartphones. The fan-base is mainly aimed at teenage girls however the plot revolves around 4 teenage boys who, after their swim club was shut down 3 years ago, reunite and pursue their passion again by starting a swim club. It reveals the story of friendship, courage and the hardships teenagers suffer before heading off into the real world.

At the beginning of every episode there is a short intro before the engaging title sequence which hooks us into the exciting storyline. The title sequence begins with previewing the younger versions of the 4 main characters who are 'under water' looking up at the sensational background. Suddenly a flash of what looks like horizontal zig-zags fold and then the clear blue water sets in with fuming bubbles making their into the scene. An outline of the word 'Free' is highlighted in bubbles and it looks as if we are travelling towards the title which shows up more clearly as the bubbles burst and the sea blue colour flashes in. 

The title sequence. 

Also there are scenes where the character's flash back to their past so a blur and misty effect is added in the picture: 

The graphics in this series is incredible! As you can see, the artists put quite a lot of detail into their well-thought out characters. As representation of a character is taken in differently by the viewers, the producers add distinctive features e.g. a harsher tone to a character so the entire audience have the same idea of the character's emotions. To show how powerful or dominant a character is, a low angle is used but to show how sad or depressed a character might be feeling, a close up of their side profile is used (especially when they put their head down). When the dialogue isn't important  e.g. if a character is talking about where they would like to eat, a clip of the background is shown e.g. nature (mostly the ocean or the swimming pool). There are a lot of panning movements and long shots as some scenes are quite heavy and dramatic. E.g. if 2 best friends stood at opposite ends of the screen, it shows how distant they have become or could lead the audience into thinking they have been in a fight.

During a happy/exhilarating scene, the colours are quite bright and it's mostly a sunny day. However if the storyline is quite dull or depressing, there is limited lighting and shadows are often used to create suspense. 

Haru- one of the main characters.

The town in which the anime is set in Japan.

There is a popular soundtrack and there are two different theme songs used at the beginning and at the end of each episode. The soundtrack is quite poignant; mostly a piano and violin are used to give some scenes extra meaning and gives it a fuller atmosphere so the audience is touched by the words of the characters more. There are typical stereotypes such as the sister of one of the boys is the swimming club's manager; she is quite young and portrayed as a typical teenage girl which is why she's shown gawping at 'beautiful' abs and triceps of muscular men at swimming competitions. Typical story-lines such as 'one of the boys wanting to swim because his father couldn't achieve his dream of becoming an Olympic swimmer (as of his death)' is used to reach out to teenagers out there who have lost someone. This is quite common so most of the teenager audience will have a connection with at least one of the characters as their lives are relatable.

Websites- Crunchyroll: 

I have been going onto Cruncyroll to get the latest episodes of Free! Iwatobi swim club instead of having to watch a poor copy on Youtube. These episodes are in HD quality which make the graphics look even more incredible!  Crunchyroll advertises all genres in anime and allows you to upgrade your account so you can be the firs to watch an episode. 

(Movie) 22 Jump Street:

Now the prequel was just as funny and action-packed as the second movie. Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill return to cinemas with their sequel 22 Jump Street. In this film, Tatum and Hill report to college whereas previously they suffered the tragic events of teenage drama and wild parties in high school. This time, they are finding a drug called 'wi-fi' and ironically, Tatum pulls his way through into the popular crowd while Jonah Hill slumps back to the bottom of the food chain. Produced by Neal H. Moritz and Tatum and Hill themselves, 22 Jump Street's scored $314.8 million in the box office.

The movie included quite a few 'chase' and 'shooting' scenes involving the famous actors therefore wide, long, crane and bird's eye view shots were used in the film. As they are 'young adults' in this story, the men had to dress in suitable casual clothing. To make some scenes mysterious, there was limited lighting but to reveal the picture more clearly, more light was leaked into the scene. 

There would be jump cuts and the camera movement is quite quick during the action clips so editing was vital for this movie. For the sound, there were fake gun shot noises and for the music, R&B style tracks would be playing over the voices.

(Movie) Freedom Writers:

During the summer, I also had the time to watch my all-time favourite drama 'Freedom Writers' starring Hilary Swank and produced by Danny DeVito and distributed by Paramount Pictures. As this film is based on true events, the actors had to resemble the students in Miss Gruwell's class therefore the costume was casual clothing. 

School related props were used e.g. textbooks, computers, desks ETC. The lighting for this film varies; during the monologues of the students' diaries the picture was quite grey and the lighting was limited. If the lighting made the picture bright, the colour would look unreal and make the scene cheerful during harsh events. There are a range of shots used (wide, long, close up, crane, over-the-shoulder shots) but the camera movement isn't steady to show how real the events are (clip).

Scene from 'The Freedom Writers'

(Music) Rixton:

The music video has a storyline; the words relate to the actions performed in the song of 'Me and My Broken Heart' by a new British boy-band Rixton who began posting videos on Youtube which is what every other wanaa-be artist does.

Captions are used to outline who the characters are so that the audience understands what role they're playing. The captions are bold and white so it stands out clearly; the clip playing is stilled so the caption can be read in about 3 seconds. The music is played out like a short story. The audience for this type of song could be ex's who have had a similar heart-break to the characters in the song. However teenagers with their technology nowadays will have obviously heard of this Youtube sensation prior to their performance on MTV. Rixton's music is quite upbeat but includes the classical piano and the riff guitar.

In the music video, they wear suits to show how classy they are- it's a first impression so they want to be represented as smart singers. The main guy takes the lead on all the notes although each of the members have the limelight through a few closeups. These boys are nothing like the other bands such as The Vamps, One Direction or the famous 5 Seconds of Summer however could they be the new Westlife as of their side-swept hair and melodic vocals? The ideology behind this video is that a person would know about their lover's snide and sneaky ways however they will always still love them as they're everything they have ever wanted. Ironic, right?

(Music) RUDE by Magic:

This new, 'mellow magic' sound of Magic, a band who was found out in summer 2014 recorded their first single 'Rude' which had a very simple and cheesy storyline.

Media language: There are some scenes after the 2^nd chorus of the song where the 'bride-to-be' is dressing up into a wedding dress so the lighting is limited and a slow-motion effect is used as it sets in well with the slow reggae guitar in the background. The is also a film grain effect for the main scene (Magic performing to the camera) to make it look like a short movie- a high angle is used to show how much pain and sorrow the main singer is feeling as he can't marry his lover. For the narrative e.g. dinner scene close ups are also used on the bride's face as well as her father's a few times during the 'front door' scenes. The picture is quite yellow/orange (sunset effect) and there is limited lighting for the performance scenes.

(News) Justin Bieber:

Now we all know who this Youtube sensation is! He has a million Beliebers, won masses of awards asa young pop artist and also stuck out as a cute, pop singer in the media who was very 'innocent' indeed. Unfortunately, as of July 2014 he became more like a rebel without a cause... or a reason. 

Bad boy Justin has a rowel with the paparazzi 

'The Independent: News Matrix' wrote a short story about this childish event, 'It adds to the 20-year-old singer’s recent legal woes,' which indicates that Bieber has done some other pretty illegal stuff in the past. However BBC News describes the full story and includes a short video; the news reporter begins, 'From child star to music's latest bad boy' which shows plenty of newspaper companies have come up with nicknames. The ending comments on his 'legal woes' also like 'The Independent'. The layout for 'The Independent' website were a list of short stories but for the BBC website, there was a link that takes you to a page titled 'Justin Bieber gets two year probation for vandalism'.

Idea: by publishing these stories, the press convinces the audience (desperate teenage girls) that Justin Bieber is behaving like all those 'immature-wannabe-be-trying-too-hard' young singers. But nobody knows the real reason as to why his 'worlds' turned upside down. Some press stories such as ones published by 'Hollywood Life' speaks of Bieber's upset relationship with Disney's Selena Gomez and how that may have led to Justin's treacherous acts.

'Three Jewish Israelis admit kidnapping and killing Palestinian boy.' by The Guardian.

The web-story for this was published by a reporter for The Guardian. The story covers the events in Gaza where a teenage boy was beaten then burnt to death by 3 older men. A picture shows a crowd (at a high angle) carrying the body of Mohammed Abu Khdeir in a box, covered in the flag colours. On the webpage, next to the story, there are other links of stories that have something to do with the 'Gaza' topic.

'Mohammed Abu Khdeir murder: Three Israeli Jews admit kidnapping teenager and burning him to death' by The Independent.

This website shows a big picture of Abu Khdeir before his death to make the audience sympathise with the family and friends of this young boy before reading the article. It includes a short video on the event and also an 'evidence' photo of the 2 Israeli men who were arrested. The video will be upsetting for younger viewers as it reveals Khdeir's cousin being beaten by the Israeli police after some protests. This is evidently the aftermath of Abu Khdeir's death.