Emily's Media Blog

Film marketing – Case study: Straight Outta Compton Introduction: The music group MWA emerges from the streets of Compton in 1980’s Los Angeles, California and it revolutionizes ‘hip-hop culture with their music and stories of life in the hood.  Director: F. Gary Gray who was born in New York City and directed other mainstream films such as ‘The Fate of the Furious’ (fast and furious 8) and Men in Black: International. This director had worked with Ice Cube before and has also directed some of Dr Dre’s music videos therefore he was familiar with the group. Box Office/Reception: the budget for the movie was $28,000,000 and on the opening weekend of the film being released they made $56,100,000 – showing the movies success and popularity with its target audiences. The film grossed at $201.6 million worldwide, finishing first at the box office in the opening weekend at $60 million. As of August 27 th 2015, it was the highest grossing musical biopic of all time – Bohemian Rhap...

Audio-visual Text – WaterAid: Rain for good The charity advert is from a campaign done in 2016 where they release an advert to persuade people to donate money to the WaterAid charity – adverts generically ask audience for money very explicitly in order to make them sympathise, empathise and feel guilty towards those who need the water.  ·        At the start of the advert there is an establishing shotwhich shows rain dripping down a window, with a radio and a plant pot – stereotypically it is seen as the house of a middle class, British person. The cold lightingused in this shot contraststo the rest of the video which uses warm lightingto show a more positive side to life in Africa. The audioused in this first scene is coming from the radio explaining how it will be “heavy rain in the UK” which juxtaposeswith the next shot which is of some crops in a field in Africa.  ·       The growing ...

Compare the representations of gender and ethnicity in Beyoncé’s Run the World, Girls music video and the music video for Dizzee Rascal’s Dream. In  your answer, you must consider:  How representations of gender and ethnicity are constructed through selection and combination of elements of media language  The similarities and differences in the representations of gender and ethnicity How far the representations relate to relevant contexts You should refer to   Levi-Strauss (binary oppositions),   Barthes   (semiotics),   Gauntlett  (identity theory)   and Gilroy (post-colonialism) in your answer as well as any other relevant theory       The two music videos I will be comparing include ‘Dream’ by Dizzee Rascal with ‘Run the world, Girls’ by Beyoncé with regards to the representations of gender and ethnicity.      The theme of ethnicity seems more present in Dizz...