Film Poster - Textual Analysis

The angle used in this poster is a long shot. This show us the main character from the film, who has a mask on and is holding a weapon. This hockey mask has become well known in the horror film genre, as the Friday the 13th films have featured this character in the series of films since the 80's, so the hockey mask has become a part of the iconography for the Friday the 13th series of films. The lighting falls on his mask in the poster which puts emphasis on this iconography and shows the return of the well known character which might invite more people to want to see the film. The series has been going since the 80's, so people who saw the first film might be interested in the remake. 

The long shot also shows the background which is a dark, gloomy forest. The connotations of this when it's included in a horror film's poster is death and murder. A common feature of horror films is a murder in a gloomy forest - it's a common setting for horror films, so the background of the poster gives an overall setting for the film. However, the audience may already be familiar with the setting for the film because it's just a remake. The tagline for the film is "Welcome To Crystal Lake". This is where the first film was set, so they've returned to the same location for the remake. As some people may already be familiar with the place, the creators would emphasise what the viewers already know and include this in the iconography for the poster. 

The camera is at quite a low angle, so the camera (and therefore, the audience) will be looking up at the person on the poster. This means he looks superior over the audience so we're inferior, and the low key, dramatic lighting creates a fearsome representation of him. He seems confident in his stance. This confidence is showing that he's not bothered by anything - he's not particularly daunted by the fact that he has a weapon in his hand ready to kill people. This pushes his fearsome representation of him further because he looks ready to kill. There's a good use on an enigma code here because the audience won't know who he wants to kill. This remake may have similar elements from the original film, but the point still stands that we don't know about characters in this film, and whether or not they'll include original characters, so the audience will want to find out who he wants to kill and why.

The colour red has been used on the film title and the date at the bottom of the poster. Red has negative connotations of death and blood. This is cohesion between the colour palette and the genre of film. In a stereotypical horror film, there will be blood and gore. The use of red on the title emphasises this genre convention. The use of red on the date at the bottom emphasis that the date will be the 13th. Obviously this is cohesion between the date used in the film and the release date, so emphasising this through the colour red not only has connotations of death, but will give the audience a bigger motive to see the film on the release date because it will feel spookier. The number 13 has old superstitions of evil, and the number is believed to be incredibly unlucky, so having the horror film about the 13th released on the 13th is a good marketing technique and will influence people to see the film on that day.

Having "From The Producers of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" placed just above the film title is good use of mark of quality because will influence fans of those films to see this one. The TCCM is a very well-known horror film with a lot of fans, so having the producers of that film work on this film will definitely attract fans of TTCM to see it. 

Print Advert - Textual Analysis

The lighting in this poster is high key. There is a catch light in the coffee's reflection which suggests a strong light source. This strong lighting could be a relation to the strong coffee. The poster is advertising extra strong coffee, so the bold lighting could be a representation of this. The light has been positioned so the owl's tummy looks more 3D, so lighting has been effectively used to create a more realistic model of an owl with coffee beans. 

Owls have big, bright eyes which help them hunt at night. Their eyes always makes them look alert and ready. They also sleep in the day and are awake at night, so both the wide eyes and staying awake at night stands as a reference to the coffee being advertised - that the coffee will help drinkers stay alert like owls. The connotations of owls include wisdom and intelligence, so this advert is using an owl to appeal to their readers and help sell their coffee because it tells the reader that with their coffee, they'll gain wisdom and intelligence just like an owl.

The light green background has connotations of nature because nature has a green colour palette. This could be a reference to both the owl and their relations to nature, or the coffee is natural and therefore healthier. The brand might have to remind their drinkers that their coffee isn't unhealthy because there's more caffeine in their coffee, therefore the light colour green helps to lighten up the advert overall and lessen the heavy, negative connotations that "extra strong coffee" might hold, like unhealthiness and drowsiness.

Glamour Magazine - Textual Analysis

This magazine has Jennifer Lopez on the front. Although she doesn't fall into the target audience of this magazine, she can still seen as aspirational to the readers. Even women younger than her want to look like her, so she is a style icon for the readers. She isn't necessarily sexualised on the cover but she does have a low cut dress on. The typical readers of Glamour (18-35 year old females) wouldn't see the sexualised side to the cover image, but it's been done to attract attention to her style and her look, which can be influential on readers. Her eye contact with the camera (and therefore the reader) pushes the idea further that she is setting an influence on the readers, and this eye contact makes the reader feel connected to Lopez. 

The main colours on the cover are pink, orange and black. The pink feminises the magazine and makes it instantly recognisable that it's aimed at women. The masthead is bold and pink and emphasises the word 'Glamour'. This sets the genre of the magazine - it makes it obvious that it's going to be about glamour and beauty. The cover image makes this obvious as well because Lopez is styled well with her hair and make-up heavily done. The cover lines also set the genre of glamour with key phrases bolded, like "The Shoe Issue" and "1209 Hot High Street Buys". These enigma codes will appeal to the magazine's target audience of 18-35 year olds because this age group is typically interested in fashion and looking fashionable. Another cover line that stands out is "Jennifer, Tells all about her new friendship with Posh". The magazine has used Victoria Beckham's nickname in this cover line, because the readers will be able to already identify who 'Posh' is. Victoria Beckham is someone the readers will take an interest in because she's a successful singer, model and fashion designer, and is also married to David Beckham, so women will aspire to be like her. This serves as another enigma for the magazine because readers will be interested to find out more about her friendship with Jennifer Lopez. They are both very influential women, so putting their names together on a cover line will attract readers. 

At the bottom of the cover, a cover line reads "Buy shoes, lose weight!". There is a big pressure on women from the media to be an ideal weight, and this cover line pushes this pressure further. The magazine doesn't offer a diet plan or some sort of way to lose the weight - it just states "lose weight", as though the magazine is demanding the reader to lose weight. Another cover line reads "How modelling almost killed me". This is an enigma code as it doesn't give any detail into how it almost killed the person, but it could be to do with weight. Just like before - there is a lot of pressure on women from the media to look a certain way, and models feel this pressure a lot. It could be a reference to an illness like anorexia which almost killed her, but the fact remains that it's just an enigma code so the reader won't know. However, this could potentially be a contradiction from the magazine here, because they demand the reader to lose weight, but then they have a story about how someone's modelling almost killed her. Although there is no description on this yet, it could be about pressure from the media.

Case Study - Gender - Daily Mail

Jennifer Love Hewitt - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2596464/Jennifer-Love-Hewitt-reveals-daughter-helped-stop-worrying-losing-pregnancy-pounds-wows-launch-maternity-line.html

Females are always under pressure from the media to look flawless - flawless skin, flawless hair, and the perfect weight. Daily Mail supports this in their article about Jennifer Love Hewitt. She recently had a baby, and the newspaper has written a whole article about her baby weight. The first line of the article is "In show business, the pressure to be thin is omnipresent". So the article starts off as admitting that celebrities do feel the pressure to look perfect all the time, but the next line then states "But Jennifer Love Hewitt, who gave birth in November, is taking her time when it comes to shredding the pregnancy pounds". This comment still implies that she is trying to lose the weight, but just not as fast as other celebrities usually do. Daily Mail is still supporting the stereotype of women in the media by writing the article in the first place. The first comment they made was an attempt to understand the pressure that celebrities have to endure, but the Daily Mail then goes on to write a whole article based on Jennifer Love Hewitt's baby weight. They are contradicting themselves because they continue to support that stereotype of the pressure on women in the media. 

The caption on this image is "Before: The beautiful brunette pictured in October 2012". The word "before" is telling the readers that the picture was taken before she had the baby and gained weight. This comparison between before pregnancy and after pregnancy implements the idea that she looked better before she gained the baby weight - they didn't have to use an old photo of her, but they did it to try and show the readers that she used to look better than she does now. The caption further reads "beautiful brunette". This is the first time she has been called something relevant to her appearance in a caption for an image of her. Again, this is pushing the idea that skinny is the ideal, most beautiful way to look, and continues to support the stereotype of women in the media having to be perfect."Beautiful brunette" also objectifies Jennifer Love Hewitt because it's drawing attention and just focusing on her looks. They've taken her hair colour and used it to label her. In other current pictures in the article, she was simply called "the 35-year-old actress" but now she's been given a description based on her appearance, making that seem that's all that matters.

Reception Theory - Topshop

http://www.topshop.com/

Topshop's website is aimed at women aged between 16 and 35. To cater to such a wide audience, they feature clothes that are in trend for all ages in this age bracket. They have also introduced designer brands to represent Topshop like Vivienne Westwood for the older half of the target audience, and have used celebrity endorsement from various people like Rihanna to appeal to the young half of the target audience. They also have offers on the website like student discounts to, again, appeal to the target audience.

Textual Analysis - Baby Face Brides

The first shot in Baby Face Brides is a medium shot of a man in a suit popping a champagne bottle. The connotation of this is celebration. The mise-en-scene in this shot includes flowers, family and people in dresses and suits so this indicates there's a wedding occurring. The music playing over the start is uplifting and happy. This audio code represents the joy that is shared on wedding days and creates a positive representation of the young couple's wedding. This means the representation of age in Baby Face Brides is already positive - the music supports the idea that the day is happy and full of joy, despite the couple being only just legal to be able to marry.

The picture above shows the young couple surrounded by friends and family on this wedding day. The dialogue over the top is from an interview from the previous shot. This, again, is a positive representation of the young couple's relationship because they are admitting their love for each other, and the shot of them kissing as man and wife confirms this. The representation of age continues to be positive regarding young relationships. 

The show is female-dominated. The show itself is called Baby Face Brides so the focus is on the women. This focus on the women suggests the wedding is more anticipated for and planned by the women. Also, most of the interviews and voice overs at the start (before the opening credits) are from the women in the relationship which again, emphasis the fact that the women are more important in the wedding preparations. The woman is stereotypically in charge of most wedding preparations and decisions, and this show supports this stereotype.

Ethnic Minorities

• Exotic
• Dangerous
• Pitied
• Humourous
• Sexualised

Dangerous - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2569892/The-shocking-gallery-guns-drugs-money-posted-online-13-year-old-boy-just-hours-accidently-shot-dead-best-friend.html

The first image we see on this article is a picture of a black, young boy with a gun. This stereotypes all people of this race to be dangerous.

Pitied - http://www.savethechildren.org.uk 

The children shown on this website are from foreign countries in areas of severe poverty. They are shown looking distressed, ill and lonely. They are pitied because we are encouraged to donate money to help the children. 

Sexualised - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2569857/Prince-Andrew-dating-George-Clooneys-ex.html

Daily Mail has labelled Monika Jakisic as "the Croatian model". This mention of ethnicity plays on the fact that they're more exotic and interesting. The article is covered in pictures of the model in little clothing, so she is sexualised. 

Representation - Old

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2552459/Jackie-Stallone-92-cakes-heavy-make-trip-buy-electric-heater.html

The title of this Daily Mail article is "Jackie Stallone, 92, cakes on heavy make-up for trip to buy electric heater", with the tagline "Don't let your face melt! Jackie Stallone, 92, cakes on heavy make-up for trip to buy electric heater". Daily Mail has already stated Stallone's age twice before the article has even begun, meaning her age is something of importance. This is a negative representation of older people because already telling the readers the person's age  means this is the first piece of information we gain from the person, meaning the article is going to be based around that. The comment in the tagline "Don't let your face melt!" can be seen as patronising towards older people because they are stereotypically seen as a bit weak and frail, meaning they might need a bit of help. This 'advice' the Mail is offering to Stallone is giving a negative representation of older people. 

The close-up image of Stallone is focusing on her looks, which is essentially what the article is about due to the title saying "cakes on heavy make-up". This article is just focusing on her age and her looks, giving a negative representation of older people because it's telling readers that you have to maintain your looks at an older age.

Representation - Female

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2549143/Amy-Willerton-looks-pretty-plum-jumpsuit-The-Saturdays-singer-Vanessa-White-shies-away-cameras-boyfriend.html

"All eyes on you: Amy Willerton looks playful in a plum playsuit at designer eyewear launch" This title represents Amy Willerton as a classy person. "Designer eyewear launch" says that she's famous enough to go to these kinds of events. The images in the article are all of her walking towards and inside the venue. She's smiling in all of them, so this creates cohesion between the image and the word "playful" in the title. "The Bristol beauty" is a demeaning description of Willerton because it's telling the readers that that's all she is - just a beautiful woman from Bristol. This tells the audience that if you're pretty, you can get famous. This is a negative representation of Willerton because it's assuming that's all she is. It also sends out a negative message  to the readers because the representation it creates will make the readers (especially female) feel pressured to look like Amy Willerton. Saying the "21-year-old model looked pretty" makes her an inspirational person to females who fall into this age group because most women want what's stereotyped as the perfect body. With Willerton being a model, she'll set aspirations for other women to be just like her.

Breaking Bad - Audience

Breaking Bad is a show about a chemistry high school teacher who falls ill with lung cancer. To fund his treatment, he uses his expertise in Chemistry to cook and sell 99.9% pure crystal meth with one of his former students. Its target audience is 18-40 year olds due to its constant drug references, profanity and nudity. 

How to improve

Audience Question

• Talk about the connotations of the cover features and how to influence their target audience to buy the magazine
• Use more media language, e.g. representation, mode of address, objectification
• Justify my answers - not only describe what I see but say why it's been done, the meanings, the connotations etc.
• More general detail in my descriptions of both describing and justifying

Representation Question

• Refer to specific texts in my answers
• Do research beforehand into existing media texts to be prepared for the exam
• Use more media language, e.g. ideology, connotations, gratifications
• Use justification as well as description

Revision and study

• Make a list of keywords to revise and remember
• Add work to my blog constantly so I'm reminded of what I need to talk about in my exam
• Go onto newspaper/magazine websites to gather an understanding of things like representation, objectification and gratifications
• Look at more case studies to prepare better for my exam

Coursework

• Reshoot for my second pre-production
• Finish off the rest of my unfinished blog posts