THE IT CROWD

The IT crowd is a channel 4 comedy based around three characters who work in the IT department if a large company. I watched the episode 'FriendFace' and here are some of the things I learnt about the characters and comedy used in the show:

The character Jen is used to be the most relatable character for the audience. Unlike Moss and Roy, Jen isn't nerdy, she is completely out of her depth when it comes to anything to do with IT and for probably most of the shows audience that is relatable for them. Jen's obsession with FriendFace is relatable for the audience because many people spend lots of time on Facebook which is what the show is parodying. Although in the show Jen is overly obsessed with FriendFace which is supposed to be humorous. 
  Moss and Roy are your stereotypical nerds who spend most of their time online and are socially incompetent. Their childlike mannerisms are at times humorous but are often just one of the shows silly gags. Their inability to find a girlfriend is used to make humorous situations throughout the show.

CHANNEL 4 COMEDY SHOWS

Here are some of the comedy shows on channel 4:

New Girl

2  Broke Girls

Ugly Betty

The IT Crowd

Cardinal Burns

Fresh Meat

Rude Tube

The Big Bang Theory

The Midnight Beast

 The Cleveland Show

Rules Of Engagement

 Man Down

 How I met your mother

 

FRAGRANCE ADVERT CHOICES

These are the three perfume adverts I have chosen to later write about.

Chanel No. 5 Perfume advert 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVmuOhoFn3U



Californian Poppy Perfume advert 1940s



Chanel No.5 Advert 1970s

ACTION HEREOS

The swashbuckler

The Bad Boy

The Charmer

The professor

The lost soul

The Best Friend

AA ANALYSIS

For my extract I have chosen Kill Bill Vol. 1 which is directed by Quentin Tarantino:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWqnZTTRkm4

This is an Action Adventure film which is a combination of crime fiction and thriller with an undertone of satire. The two minute extract I have chosen comes towards the end of the film and shows the heroine battling against the crazy 88.

The scene begins with a battle between the main character, the bride and The Crazy 88. As the viewer for a short period of time you feel that the main character is in jeopardy as she is surrounded by a gang of villains armed with machetes and is clearly outnumbered. But this sense of jeopardy is soon lost as the heroine begins to slice through every one of the villains. The idea of one person being able to demolish around 30 armed villains is completely beyond  the point of realistic, this is where satire comes in.

There is an obvious satire on action and adventure films in Kill Bill, this is done by making everything in the fight scene over the top. For example the gore, on one level it is quite frightening and on another it is ridiculous as there are people losing their limbs and a guy having his eyeball snatched out by The Bride.

The suspense builds up from the first shot when you see her facing the gang and is clearly outnumbered and although after she has defeated many of the gang members you as the viewer are still anxious as to whether she can defeat all of them.

The heroine is fairly typical, she is attractive, wears a tight fitting costume and is fierce like most other female heroes in action and adventure films. The villains wear black masks and tuxedos and look threatening as villains usually do. As a viewer you are rooting for Uma Thurman's character as she is getting revenge on the people who put her in a coma. Throughout the scene the viewer experiences fear, excitement and disbelief.

READING LYNX

In the lesson we looked at an article called Reading Lynx which analysed a banned advert created by Lynx. From the article I learnt about cultural and technical codes, substitution and the sign. The article taught me about how to break down and understand an advert as a media analyst would. I've been discovering that there is a lot of objectification of women in media than I thought and instead of sighing and ignoring it like I normally would I've been looking at it in more detail and understanding why it's used.

Lynx unlike other brands are not at all subtle about their objectification of women. They just directly say 'Hey, middle aged male looking at our advert, yeah you see that woman? Well if you buy our deodorant you can have a woman like that waiting at home for you and with our help you can keep your cool and not break a sweat when around her'.

LUCOZADE AND LARA CROFT

In the lesson we learnt about how Lucozade was orignally used as a tonic but was later rebranded as a energy drink. We watched a video that expalined the process of creating an advert and slecting a celebrity endorser for the product.

In 1999 Lucozade chose their new celebrity endorser, Lara Croft. A perfect fit, she's a celebrity who can't do or say anything that could destroy the Lucozade image, she's energetic and let's face it she has a great figure. Lara Croft appealed to a largely male demographic because at the time the video game community was almost completely male. Not only that but Lara is an attractive female who will do whatever you command to a certain extent which of course are appealing features to any man.

COCA-COLA HILLTOP ADVERT

In 1971 Coca-Cola released an advert called 'Hilltop' in which Coke projects an image of worldwide community whilst also advertising their product. They do this by featuring people from different countries and having every person within the advert hold a coke showing that their product brings all different ethnicities together in 'harmony'. The people featured in the advert are mostly young adults, they could have done this because young people are the future and that they are the ones who can bring our world closer and to make it an attractive product to young people. The song used in the advert is very catchy as well as having lyrics that reinforce thoughts about coke, world peace and community. One of the lyrics in the song is 'it's the real thing' the purpose of the lyric is to show coke's authenticity and how there could be other contenders like Pepsi but they're not 'the real thing'.

Overall I think Coca-Cola cleverly used many different advertising skills in this commercial to enforce a positive image of the company and to promote world peace whilst also advertising their product.

SHOT TYPES

Shots from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Requiem For a Dream

Over the shoulder shot 

Mid shot

Close up

Point of view

FIRST MEDIA STUDIES LESSON

In our first lesson we looked at a Listerine advert and watched a Coke zero advert. The first was a Listerine advert which was a picture of a pathetic looking woman holding a cloth and looking upset. This picture was accompanied by some text explaining that the woman, Edna had halitosis and that this was the reason why she had no husband and was 'often a bridesmaid but never a bride'. The target audience for this advert are women age 30 or above who have not yet found a husband and persuades them into believing that it is because they do not use Listerine. Unfortunately Listerine does not have the power to give you that so called 'perfect' life.

The second advert was a Coke Zero advert which was promoting both Coke Zero and Quantum of Solace. The advert was targeting men and boys by having the whole advert be filled with stereotypical male interests such as conventionally attractive women, car chases and short fights. The advert was all in the coke zero colour scheme of black, white and red and has reoccurring appearances of the Coke Zero bottle and bottle shape just so you remember that it's not just an advert for a James Bond movie. They also threw in a catchy song so that it is stuck in your head and you don't forget about the advert.