Task 3 - Todorov - Brief 4

Tzevetan Todorov is a Franco-Bulgarian philosopher. Lived in France since 1963 writing various books and essays about literary theory, thought history and culture history. He has published a total of 21 books, Todorov has also been a visiting proffesor at several universities, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia and the University of California, Berkeley.

Todorov's greatest cotribution to literaray theory was his defining of the fantastic, the fantastic uncanny, and the fantastic marvelous. He defines the fantastic as being any event that happens in our world that seems to be supernatural. Upon the occurrence of the event, we must decide if the event was an illusion or whether it is real and has actually taken place. Todorov uses Alvaro from Cazotte;s Le Diable Amoureux as an example of a fantastic event. Alvaro must decide whether the woman he is in love with is truly a woman or is she is the devil. The story of course continues...

Awards

- Bronze medal of the CNRS

- The Charles Lévéque Prize of the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques

- The first Maugean Prize

- The Académie Française

- The Prince of Asturias Award for social sciences

He is also an officer of the 'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres'

Task 1 - Flossary - Brief 4

Classical Cinema:

Classical Cinema is one of the names used to describe the methods of film making. It involves the use of recognisable actors and actresses whose lives blur the distinction between fantasy - reality. Locations, props, costumes and such may be determined by the film's genre, but are always different from the world lived in by the audience. The composition of picture on the screen occupies the centre of the screen, with standard shot sizes, also taking into consideration the lighting on set - Three point lighting, key light, fill light and black light. This makes stars stand out and makes the set and scenery look glamorous. Fast editing, shots not held too long. Long shots are usually held longer than closer shots.

Characters may be determined by the films genre, though generally heroes and villains: things happen in their world because of the actions of individuals. A single story that begins when the films begins and ends with closure at the end. Usually a happy or satisfying ending - this is called a Single Strand narrative. Continuous editing - cuts from one shot to another that follow the logic of the action, or the interaction between characters for example if a characters 'eye-line match' and 'shot/reverse shot'.

The Hollywood Studio System

The Hollywood studios that emerged in the 1910s and the 1920s - Paramount, Fox, Warner Bros' etc. All complemented their factory-based production operations with common business practices that helped them to collectively take over the movie industry in the US and increasingly world wide as well. Most of the early studios still dominate the industry on a global scale. During Hollywood's so-called classical era, when the studio system was at it's peak, and when the studios' collective dominion era. Film studios in other countries have enjoyed great success for periods of time, and occasionally to the extent that the terms "Studio system" and "national cinema" apply to them as well. This success often coincided with the national and international popularity of a particular type of product or film style, as with Ufa and German Expressionism in the 1920s. or the remarkable run of Alfred Hitchcock-directed thrillers from Gaumont British Distributors Ltd.

Cinematography

The history of moving images goes back to more than one thousand years. December 28, 1895 can be considered the birthday of projected film presented in a theatre. It was then Antoine Lumiére from Lyon, the director of a plant producing film materials and the father of August and Louis Lumiére, hosted in the Grand Café of Paris a show of living pictures.

Pre-planned camera positions and bulky equipment - little spontaneity and few extreme camera angles, or expressive camera movements. Light is necessary to create an image exposure on frame of film or on a digital target, the art of lighting for cinematography goes far beyond basic exposure, however into the spirit of visual storytelling. Lighting contributes considerably to the emotional response an audience has watching a motion picture. It reflects the mood on screen and helps the scenes atmosphere.

One aspect of cinematography that strongly separates it form still photography (aside from the moving imagery) is the ability to move the camera, which represents the audience's viewpoint or perspective, during the course of filming. This movement plays a considerable role in the emotional language of film images and the audience's emotional reaction to the action on the screen.

Task 2 - Propp - Brief 4

Vladimir Propp’s grew up in Germany and later in life he wrote Russian folk tales. He extended the Russian formalist approach around the narrative structure. By Propp breaking down these Russian folk tales into their smallest narrative units, or narratemes he was then able to arrive at a typology of narrative structures; some of which include

Absentation, Interdiction, Violation of Interdiction and so on…

Propps Ideas - He believed that in every film there was:

• The Hero - Seeks something
• The Villain - Opposes the hero
• The donor - Helps the hero by providing a 'magic' object
• The dispatcher - Sends the hero on it's way
• The false hero - Falsely assuming the role of the hero
• The helper - Gives support to the hero
• The princess - The reward for the hero, but also needs protection from the villain
• The father

Comparing these characters to 'Some like it Hot':

Sugar - The Princess: As she is the beautiful woman that is wooed by both men in the film.

Joe - The father, The hero: He wants to protect her from harms way and also saves/falls in love with her and they end up together.

Jerry - The Helper: Although both of them love Sugar Joe get's the girl in the end, but helps throughout the film as they try to disguise themselves so they don't get caught by the mobsters.

'Gangsters' (That they are running from) - The Villain: Because they want to kill Joe, and Jerry as they witnessed the gangsters killing someone.

Advice Page

Advice Page (TARGETING 15 - 18 YR OLDS)

Give advice on what they can include to get a 15+ certificate and what they should not include to avoid getting an 18.

See ‘Classification Guidelines’ page of BBFC website for all the information you need.

The group of students should first make a plan of any ideas they may have for the story, settings, costumes and so on. They will need to be careful that they do not over step the 15 classification mark as this will not appeal to their target audience. So when working out the plot they need to know what they are and are not able to use in the storyline - film.

A 15 Classification - Contains strong language and drug references.

For example 'When you're strange' is a new and upcoming film expected to open 02/07/2010, directed by Tom DiCillo. This film passed a 15 certificate without any cuts having to be made to the film. The film has been put in the DOCUMENTARY genre, and the film is predominantly English. When the film was submitted to the BBFC the film had a running time of 85 minutes 32 seconds.

So if the group of students make sure that they are within the limitations of this certificate then they will successfully meet the target audience, so all ages between 15 - 18 can view the film.

About BARB

BARB (Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board) is an organisation responsible for providing the official measurement of UK television audiences. Specialist companies provide the television audience with a measurement service on its behalf.

It is responsible for providing estimates of the number of people watching television. This includes which channels and programmes are being watch and when they are being watched. Also the type of people who are viewing at any one time. The viewing data is collected second–by–second and delivered on a minute-by-minute basis for channels received within the UK.

Glossary

Audience Profile - The audience profile shoes how the main audience category is divided into its subcategories (such as age, social grade, gender and so on) in percentage terms. For example, if any programme achieves an adult AB profile of at least 10%, this means that 10% of adult viewers were AB, while the other 90% were C1, C2, or DE Adults. An audience profile could be compared to an equivalent population profile to produce an index.

Reach (%Population) - The net number or percentage of people who have seen a particular piece of broadcast output for example a programme, daypart, channel, TV advertising campaign.

Programme or daypart reach assesses what percentage of the population saw a specified amount of again a programme or daypart, it is also used cumulatively to assess the total net percentage that saw a specified amount of a complete series/month of television etc. There are various ways of defining the amount of viewing an individual must have done in order to continue as having been ‘reached’. The BARB definition is for this to be at least three consecutive minutes.

For TV advertising campaigns, reach (the net percentage of the target audience to have at least one opportunity to see the campaign) if usually used in conjunction with occurrence (the average number of times the campaign was seen by those within the target audience who were reached) to create an overall measure of campaign exposure.

Share (%Viewers) - The percentage of total viewers watching over a certain period of time. This can apply to channels, programmes, time periods etc. For example, a share of 58% forCoronation Street would mean that, of all the viewing audience watching television whenCoronation Street was being transmitted, 58% were watching that particular programme at that time.

Social Grade - A classification of household social status based on the occupation of the main income earner. BARB reports the following social grades: AB - Higher (A) or intermediate (B) managerial, administrative or professional

C1 - Supervisory or clerical and junior managerial, administrative or professional

C2 - Skilled manual workers

D - Semi-skilled and unskilled workers

E - State pensioners, casual or lowest grade workers

Spot - An individual occurrence of a commercial.

Viewer Analysis

BARB

Channel 4

w/e 14 Feb 2010

		000's
1	EMBARRASSING BODIES (WED 2102)	3,636
2	ONE BORN EVERY MINUTE (TUE 2101)	3,304
3	RELOCATION RELOCATION (WED 1959)	3,137
4	SHAMELESS (TUE 2201)	3,034
5	COME DINE WITH ME (SAT 1800)	3,005
6	COME DINE WITH ME (SAT 1729)	2,489
7	DEAL OR NO DEAL (FRI 1612)	2,367
8	DEAL OR NO DEAL (WED 1612)	2,345
9	DEAL OR NO DEAL (TUE 1612)	2,325
10	COME DINE WITH ME (WED 1730)	2,322

'Embarrassing bodies' was the number one most viewed on Channel 4 within the last week, with 3,636 views. The least viewed show was 'Come Dine With Me' with 2,322 views on Channel 4 within the last week.

Viewing Figures

Explain how commercial stations compare to BBC viewing figures (for example, XFM, Kiss FM, Magic). Include a ‘Glossary’ for the viewing figures such as the meanings of: Population, Avereage Hours Per Head, Average Hours per listener

Why advertisers are interested in Radio ratings.

TO DO:

About BARB (more detail)

Why advertisers are interested in ratings

BBFC

The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-governmental body, which has classified cinema films since it was set up in 1912, and videos since the passing of the Video Recordings Act in 1984.

Cinema

The BBFC was set up in early 1912 by the film industry as an independent body to being a slice of uniformity to the classification of film nationally.

Statutory powers on film remain with the local councils, which may be overruled by any of the Board's decisions, passing films they reject, banning films they have passed, and even waiving cuts, instituting new ones, or altering categories for film exhibited under their own licensing authority.

Video

In 1984 Parliament passes the Video Recordings Act. Which stated; subject to certain exemptions, video recordings offered

for sale or hire commercially in the UK must be classified by an authority designated by the Secretary of State. The president and Vice of the BBFC were so designated, they were charged with applying the new test of 'Suitability for viewing in the home'. At this point the Board's title was changed to British Board of Film Classification to reflect the fact that classification plays a far larger part in the board's work than censorship.

Examples of Classification Decisions

The Railway Children - U - Containts scenes of character in danger

- Lionel Jeffries

Alice in Wonderland - PG - Contains moderate fantasy Violence

- Tim Burton

Hierro - 12A - Contains strong language, once, moderate Violence & Psychological threat

- Gabe Ibåñez

The Shouting Men - 15 - Contains strong language and sex references

- Steve Kelly

Repo Men - 18 - Contains strong bloody violence

- Miguel Sapochnik

Case Study for A Clockwork Orange

http://www.sbbfc.co.uk/CaseStudies/A_clockwork_orange (09.03.10)

The BBFC was initially shown a screenplay based on Anthony Burgess's novel in 1967 and advised the distributors that the film showing 'an unrelieved diet of vicious violence and hooliganism' would be unlikely to be acceptable. However, when the finish product was submitted to the BBFC in 1971 )by which time the age bar for seeing 'X' rated film has been raised from 16 to 18), it was passed 'X' with no cuts. At the time, the Board's Secretary, Stephen Murphy, defended the film by stating that "Disturbed thought we were by the first half of the film, which is basically a statement of some of the problems of violence, we were, nonetheless, satisfied by the end of the film that it could not be accused of exploitation: quite the contrary, it is a valuable contribution to the whole debate about violence".

There was a strong body of press and public opinion that the crimina and anti-social actions of the film's main character. Alex, would be copied by young people, inspired by his charismatic example to break the law. Indeed, reports in the papers of suggested that some attacks now occurring were inspired by the film. In fact, however, no such behaviour by anyone over the age of 18 was ever reliably established as being related to the film.

In 1973, allegedly concerned about reports of copycat violence, and threats made to the safety of himself and his family, Kubrick withdrew the film from circulation in the UK. This was in spite of the fact that the film had been judged by the Board to be acceptable for public viewing for adults over the age of 18. At no time did the BBFC reject the film - although this is a common misconception - and it continued to be available throughout much of the rest of the world.

It was not until after Kubrick's death that his family agreed to permit the release of the film again. It was submitted to the BBFC in 1999 for a modern classification certificate and received an '18', without cuts, to replace it's old 'X' certificate. There was a muted response from the public, and the video version of 2000 was also classified '18' uncut.

TO DO:

Brief History

What it Does

RAJAR

RAJAR stands for Radio Joint Audience Research, it is the official body in charge of measuring radio audiences in the UK. It is in joint ownership with the BBC and the RadioCentre on behalf of the commercial sector.

It was recognised in 1992 to operate a single audience measurement system for the radio industry. The BBC and UK licensed commercial stations. The company is mainly owned by the RadioCentre (the Commercial Radio stations in the UK, formally known as CRCA - Commercial Radio Companies Association) and by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

RAJAR's non-executive independent chairman chairs meetings of the board. The day to day operations of RAJAR are the responsibility of the Chief Executive and research director.

History on RAJAR:

Similarities between the previous and current RAJAR system; the research carried out between 1992 and 1998 was based on day seven day self-completetion diaries, personally placed and collected by interviewers.

The sampling and fieldwork plan for 92 - 98 permitted the publication of results for BBC and Commercial Radio national and regional services (with adult populations of 4 million +) on a quarterly basis. Results for most local radios services, both Commercial and BBC, were published for each Quarter 2 & Quarter 4. For the smaller stations, with less of an audience (adult population under 300,0000) were measured once a year, in Quarter 2.

For a year (1996 - 1997), RAJAR carried our a review of methods, followed by an extensive experimental programme of a new diary and sample designs. Following the review, the new RAJAR contract specification included three key new features:

• A 'personalised' diary, customised to include the stations required by each individual respondent.
• Only one adult per household to be interviewed, instead of all household members.
• Measurement of audiences on a rolling basis, with listening date built up over three, six or twelve months, according to the size of station, with publication of all stations results every quarter.

The new RAJAR specification was put out to tender in March 1998. Following a full evaluation of submissions, a four year initial contract, starting in January 1999, was awarded to Ipsos-RSL in June 1998. This was extended for a further two years, until the end of 2006. A new contract was awarded, starting in Q2 2007.

Changes to the main contract include:

• A new diary featuring platform columns as well as location, allowing reporting on each platform separately.
• The move from postcode sectors to districts as building blocks to define TSAs, which led to a reduction in the number of segments, therefore bringing less volatility to the reported date.