Hyperreality essay

To what extent can Reality TV and the modern rolling news exemplify Debord's theory of the spectacle and Baudrillard's theory of Hyperreality?

Guy Debord's theory of the spectacle states: "The world we see is the world of the commodity... [the spectacle is] a social relationship between people that is mediated by images to compensate for the crumbling of directly experienced... productive activity." The theory is that what we see in the media is a false representation [a spectacle] of reality. We're being sold a fake, something "worthless to fill our empty lives." Baudrillard's theory of Hyperreality is claiming the distinction between media and reality has collapsed and we now live in a reality defined by images and representations - a state of simulated reality. Images refer to each other and represent each other as reality rather than some "pure" reality that exists before the image represents it - this is the state of hyperreality. There are many examples of this in Reality TV and rolling news.

One major example of Debord's theory of the spectacle is the reality TV show made in chelsea. This is something called scripted reality, they are given a rough script to stick to and then they improvise most of it with how they would in their normal lives. This gives a sense that it's real but the truth is that it's all staged. They almost manipulate the audience in this way because they get the audience to connect with all the different characters and convince them they're real despite most of it being fake. The advertising for instance on the site YouTube for made in chelsea is all targetted at the audience of made in chelsea, adverts for Burbery and Chanel etc. The fact that people think the actors in this show are real creates a problem and makes it something called postmodern, where there's no longer a line between media and reality and so people don't know what's real and what's not, creating a state of simulated reality, which links in with Baudrillard's theory of hyperreality. Another example is the TV show, which in a sense is also a reality TV show, X-Factor. This show has three judges and lots of contestants who perform in front of a live audience. However it's not that simple as the audience is told what to do and when, so if they boo a certain act the show is trying to get you to be against the contestant as well, or for cheering root for that contestant. They also edit the shots so that if someone was shocked about a certain act they could take the audience being shocked and put it to another act to again make you not like that contestant. This show basically manipulates the audience without them knowing into rooting for or against different contestants, real people. This is a good example of how the media is selling us something fake, to fill our "empty" lives.

An example of Baudrillard's theory of hyperreality is adverts today. Adverts such as underwear or perfume from celebrities like David Beckham and Madonna. As well as the actual representation of celebrities like Jade Goody and Chanelle Hayes. With the advertising we are being sold a product by the advertising companies "sexualising" people like David Beckham and Madonna to make you buy it. We see Beckham in his underwear with a significant "bulge" and muscles, which may or may not be photoshopped/faked. This convinces boys and men alike that this image is what you are supposed to look like and gives us a twisted view on reality, a state of simulated reality. This is almost exactly the same with Madonna and other celebrities selling perfume or underwear, convincing girls and women that this is what you should look like. The celebrities being represented by the media is slightly different but still can be applied to the theory of hyperreality. The celebrity Chanelle Hayes has been represented by the media in a completely sexual way, being topless in magazines like ZOO and acting provocative in her music video "I want it", even the title hinting at something sexual. This is completely twisting our view of her as for all we know she could be very innocent and sweet but all we are shown by the media is her looks. She was in big brother 8 and probably mainly picked because of her looks. The celebrity Jade Goody has also been represented by the news and media in a bad light, but also a good one. She was also in big brother and very much hated by the media. She then went on the big brother in india and was told live on air that she had cervical cancer. This is an example of how cruel the media can be in showing someone's life changing bad news live on a show for everyone to watch. After this news the media completely changed their views on her and only gave her good press, but still reporting on her every step of the way. This is an example that once something is on the news it stays on the news because people want to know what happens next. Her entire life from when she was told she had cancer was documented, giving us all a sense of simulated reality as we were literally watching this girl die step by step with the media in her face every part of it. The relationship with both these celebrities for the viewers have been completely manipulated by the media. For example most people believed Jade wasn't a nice person because of all the bad press she got but when the media changed their mind after the cancer discovery most people changed their minds as well.

Hotel Babylon essay

Discuss the ways in which the extract constructs representations of ethnicity

In this extract of "Hotel Babylon" several workers are hiding from the authorities as to not get deported as they're all illegal immigrants. The receptionist warns a co-worker and he rushes down to the basement and tells all the workers to hide however one gets captured. They show ethnicity fairly broadly and don't conform to stereotypes.

All of the illegal immigrants are obviously not fully british. However they haven't gone with a stereotype that they are all black or all asian they have a wide variety of different ethnicities and some are white perhaps from some parts of europe. The stereotype would be that they are all black but i don't think this extract conforms to that. They also have a wide variety of gender and age, there is old people and young people who are immigrants as well as a mix of women and men. They also have a black person who's not an immigrant as well as a white person who's not an immigrant. You end up feeling very sorry for the immigrants as they are all trapped in the room together and one of them even faints. You see that they're close and they look innocent and scared. The fact that one of them faints because she has diabetes gives the audience another reason to feel sorry for the immigrants and they're on their side. The audience is taught not to like the man who takes away ibrahim. He is the archetypal character of the bad guy, who doesn't care what is right or not and is slightly power mad so he takes ibrahim in even though he doesn't have to and could turn a blind eye. Although he is slightly kind to the immigrants because he mentions he knows about the code and that he allowed them 2 to 3 minutes to hide before coming in and so he was only "following the rules" but you still can't help but be against him. They convey action through camerawork. At the start of the extract the camera is moving around a lot tracking the action and panning around quickly. For instance when the woman faints the camera quickly zooms in, also when there's a knock on the door the camera zooms into her face. There is also a soundtrack in the background to convey action as well. Most of the sound apart from that is diegetic. All of the immigrants are wearing the same sort of clothing, either a purple uniform or a white uniform showing that they are essentially all the same or all part of the same family even though they are slightly different as they all have different nationalities and backgrounds. They all also have an accent to highlight the fact they're immigrants whereas the british workers all have a very clear british accent, in some cases quite posh, like the receptionist. The immigration worker has a english accent but it's more cockney and seems harsher.

Explore the representation of gender in this extract

Explore the representation of gender in this extract

The tv show scott and bailey revolves around two detectives, scott and bailey. In this extract a woman is talking to a man at a dinner table, the woman is wearing plain clothes like she has come straight from work and the man is wearing a suit with no tie, showing he dressed up quite smart but not overly so. She is slouched over and leaning on her hand. Her body language is relaxed and casual. His body language is tight and he seems nervous. He keeps up straight and talks very carefully. He breaks up with her and his voice stays calm although it stutters where as she is confused, she seems taken aback and upset. The background is all out of focus so we can see that the focus of this part is on the two people in the middle of the frame. The lighting is quite low key and keeps natural, it is at the side of the man, splitting his face into light and dark, perhaps showing that he has a dual personality and is possibly hiding something from her. Whereas the light on the woman is the same throughout her face. The next scene is the workplace, the overall lighting is quite light, natural. Most of the people in the scene are wearing normal black/grey work clothes except a couple of the girls are wearing quite vibrant colours like blue, to make them stand out. The men in the workplace are preoccupied, they're all listening to the boss but they're not giving their full attention. For instance one of the workers is throwing and catching a coin and you can see via editing that one of them is checking out another girls legs. The editing shows this by cutting from the man bending his head to the right to the girls legs and the camera is panning up the leg. There is also another man looking at the pictures she mentioned in this scene. The idea of this scene with gender isn't to segregate them, the stereotype being that the men are the powerful ones or the woman are all sexualised. The piece shows the variety quite well because even though the men aren't paying much attention and one of them is checking out a coworker the big boss is a woman and the only input comes from a woman. In the next scene the woman is wearing a leather jacket and jeans again all in black and the man is wearing a casual dressing gown. The woman is banging on the door then enters his apartment. The lighting is again across half of the mans face and the womans face is lighted evenly. She is big with motions and seems violent towards him. He takes it as he knows he deserves it.

Film Industry 6

Q1. People went to go and see pirates of the carribean 2 because it was a good film and because it was so well marketed. If it wasn't marketed no one would know about this film and therefore no one would go and see it. If the film was poor and got bad reviews and such no one would go and see it. I therefore think that it is a bit of both that means lots of people went to see it.

Q2.

Film industry part 5

Q1. Anne Hathaway would bring a lot to the role. Not only her acting abilities. As well as this because she is so popular that people who have heard of her or are fans of her will come and see the film. Even people who just know that she is well known will go and see it because they will think that if the film can afford her or that she thinks it's worth doing it must be a good film.

Q2. I was recommended the film seven psychopaths by word of mouth but i haven't gotten round to seeing it yet. I went to see the film Jack Reacher because i liked the trailer and it looked a bit like other films i have enjoyed like mission impossible and in the film had an actor i like.

Q3. Avatar made the most amount of money but it's budget was a lot more than the other films. Their budget was very low and the made quite a lot of money but not as much as avatar.

Q5. The soundtrack of a film is very important in my opinion. The lord of the rings and the hobbit are good examples of this. The soundtrack to these films add so much to the films and they are well known partly because of them. Also with musicals such as les miserables which is coming out soon the soundtrack will be very important for that.

Q6. Lionsgate has survived the film industry by mainly investing in and buying award winning TV shows, well known DVD series and award winning films.

Film industry 4

Q1. What are the main genres produced by the UK film industry in the last 25 years? Try and think of some more recent examples from the last few years. Who do you think goes to see these types of films?

The main genres produced are action films, and rom coms. Teenagers mostly go to see these types of films and maybe some slightly older audience, 15-25 would be the main age gap.

Q2. DNA films last two productions were Dredd 3D (2012) and Never Let Me Go (2010). What kind of films are they? How are they different from earlier films? Have they been successful at the box office?

They're both science fiction drama films. They both did pretty well in the box office and they are different from earlier films because they're more futuristic.

Q3. Summarise in your own words what kinds of films Momentum Pictures look to distribute and why?

They look to distribute thrilling and gripping films that are interesting to their audiences. Most of the films they're distributing at the moment are thrillers but with some comedy or drama. They mainly produce big films that make a lot of money but are possibly slightly less well known about.

Film industry 3

Q1. Why do you think 3D takings went down when the number and variety of 3D films increased in 2011?

The novelty of going to see a 3D film, except maybe in the imax has worn off. Less people will go and see a 3D film if it doesn't seem to affect the actual plot of the film as it is more expensive. For instance a film like titanic wouldn't change much if it was in 3D or 2D but a film with a lot of action etc. would be affected if in 3D. So even though more films are in 3D, they don't need to be and so people are saving themselves money and seeing them in 2D instead.

Q2. Where do you think these films end up being shown?

In indie cinemas like the ritzy in brixton for about a week. This is so they can say they were in the cinema so it's easier to sell the film. Also if they get good reviews they get publicity and might even extend their stay in the cinema.

Q3. Why do you think there are more people going to the cinema mid - week? Who are more likely to attend the cinema outside of opening weekends?

People who are more likely to go to the cinema outside of opening weekends are middle aged people and people who have no work or no school to go to.

Q4. Why do you think there has been a decline in DVD sales in the last few years?

More websites like Love film and netflix allow you to rent films online, stream them or even get DVDs delivered to your house for rent. This means less people buy DVDs because they can get the films they want when they want at home already so there's no need for DVDs.

Q5. Summarise what has remained the same about the UK film market over the last ten years and what has changed dramatically?

Annual UK admissions hasn't changed. The amount of people downloading and streaming films online has increased massively. This is because of nowadays that the broadband speeds are much faster than they used to be so you can download films easier. There is also many more streaming sites like 4oD and LoveFilm etc. so you can stream films a lot easier also.

Q6. How does film production in the UK seem to be very different from the Hollywood model of large, powerful studios?

Film production in the UK receives a lot less money and investment than hollywood films so UK films are a lower budget and might look less glossy. UK films tend to be quite gritty and hollywood films look glossy and sometimes very fake because the budget is so big so everything is perfect and all the special effects look really good.

Q7. What is the benefit of a film producer to their film being branded as british? What is it about 'Britishness' that is attractive to investors from outside the UK? What is it about 'Britishness' that makes it easy for Hollywood studios to dominate our film market?

If a film producer brands their films as british then they get tax breaks and will make more money. British films are thought of very highly abroad as they have a very good reputations.

Q8. How many of these could be considered British films? How many of them are co-productions where the majority of the money leaves the country? What does this say about the scale of the UK film industry?

The ones where country of origins is just the UK and not a mixture of USA and UK. A lot of the films are co-productions where the majority of the money leaves the country. The UK film industry is quite large because some of the highest grossing films in the world are made entirely in the UK. However the UK industry is nowhere near as big as the american film industry and doesn't make as much money.

Film piracy essay

What are the cons (for institution) and the pros (for audience) of digital film piracy?

Film piracy has existed for years. Copies of films could have been copied on to a disk after being filmed by a cheap camcorder in a cinema with lots of ambient noise and shaky camera work. People buying these films will have been ripped off as sometimes these films wouldn't even work properly. The people selling these films have been linked to other more serious crimes and therefore by buying these films you are effectively fuelling these crimes such as human or drug trafficking and even terrorism. The film industry spend a lot on adverts and posters to try and spread awareness of the fact that film piracy isn't a good thing. For instance in 2004 a 1.5 million pound campaign was launched to try and spread awareness of this very thing. This in the big picture isn't that much money to the film industry but on top of all the money they lose from people not buying their real DVDs and buying fake ones it is a blow to the industry. In the UK alone the estimated value of the pirated film market is said to be £950 million. The industry of film loses a lot via film piracy and while nowadays buying DVDs on the streets is a lot rarer there are still lots of ways films can be pirated. For instance nowadays people download the films off of the Internet for free and don't pay anything to the companies. Because the technology of recording devices is developing so quickly it is becoming harder to counter film piracy at the source as they are smaller and harder to detect. However if the file companies are able to stop people downloading and buying these pirated films then you could effectively stop it in a different way as there would be no point in pirating the film, however that would be hard to do because at the moment there isn't a bad thing the audience gets from it.

For the audience there doesn't seem to be a bad thing about film piracy, except possibly the fact that most of the money goes towards more serious crime. The audience get the films for free and don't need to even leave the house to download them. In some countries film and also music piracy is taken a lot more seriously. In these countries if you are caught downloading them illegally you are charged a lot of money and so in these countries less people download these films. However now there are even sites online where you can stream the films or tv programs so they are harder to trace back to the consumer and even harder to prosecute because they haven't actually done much wrong as in some cases the sites have been made to look legal to fool the consumer.

In conclusion the cons for institution are massive money losses and the pros for audience is little to no money loss,

Film Industry 2

Q1. In the UK film market, an increase in the number of screens available to show films has NOT led to an increase in the number of films being shown. Why?

Each film has to be produced individually and the time needed to produce each film has not been decreased therefore the same amount of films are being made even though there are more screens available to see them in. In each of the screens the same films are played just at different times during the day.

Q2. In your opinion what might account for the fact that cinema attendances have fluctuated between 139 million and 176 million between 1999 and 2008?

More people go to the cinema because there are more huge films in recent years with huge budgets from huge production companies.

Q3. In 2011, UK film distributors invested £330 million in advertising their new releases and on 35mm film prints. If around 450 new films receive a theatrical in the UK every year. How much, on average, do distributors spend distributing a film in the UK?

£733,333 per film.

Q4. This spending stirred up an enormous demand – 171.5 million cinema tickets were bought in the UK in 2011. This is great news for cinemas – what’s the downside of all this excitement generated and consumer demand for film PRODUCERS in the UK?

If a producer in the UK was trying to bring out a film then they would have a lot of difficulty because a lot of the big film companies steal the attention away from them and take up all the screens. For instance Skyfall is still in screen 1 in most places and at the end of the week Twilight will be out and in screen 1 everywhere so if you wanted to bring out a film you wouldn’t get much time, if any, to be in screen 1. Perhaps not even in any screens.

Q5. In 2004 the average cost of releasing a US film domestically was $39m, in addition to the average production cost of $63.8m, making an overall average production/distribution cost per film of $102.8m. What effect might this have on Hollywood production and distribution if these increases have continued?

This would have a bad effect on Hollywood because more money would need to be spent on making and producing the film and so less profit will be made and less money will be made. They will also make less films because more money needs to be spent so it puts a lot of pressure on the few films that are being made to make more profit.

Q6. Why are more 'middle aged' people going to the cinema in 2011? Who, in your opinion, are the current most bankable leading actors for the 'youth' market in the UK?

More middle aged people are going to the cinema because more actors are older and from their 'time' so more middle aged people are going to the cinema to see the actors of their day.

Q7. Only about 18, 19 films made their studios a profit.

Q8. Jerry Bruckheimer is still a high concept producer because he produces films like pirates of the carribean. Michael Bay doesn't deserve most of this because the producer isn't going to put in the effects in and do all the explosions and so i think the credit should go to the editors.

Q9.  I think the indiewood films are aimed at a younger audience of teenagers.

My Media

Hello, i am Joshua Bailey.

I watch a fair amount of TV. I watch The Big Bang Theory, How I met your mother, New Girl and recently starting watching The Walking Dead. However I do not follow any of these series except from The Walking Dead, I will just watch the above TV programs if they are on TV. I would recommend The Walking Dead, which is a US drama about a zombie apocalypse, it's very exciting and has lots of twists, I wont give anything away but trust you will not get bored!
I go to the cinema fairly regularly, sometimes every week depending on how much money I have. The films I have recently watched are Ted, The Dark Knight Rises and my favourite film, or film series of all time is Lord of The Rings or Star Wars, both incredible series and i recommend them strongly. I also recommend Ted as it is absolutely hilarious and also The Dark Knight Rises because even though it is fairly long it's exciting and action packed.
I don't usually listen to the Radio unless I am in the car with my mum and she puts it on. We listen to Select UK or XFM. The type of music is either house or techno and on XFM rock. I enjoy both stations but I wouldn't listen to them unless I didn't have access to the internet because on the internet I can choose what I listen to.
I do listen to a lot of Music. I use either Spotify or YouTube. I don't really have a favourite genre of music but I do dislike some types such as Pop or Classical. My favourite bands at the moment are Bon Iver, Benjamin Francis Leftwich and Panic! At the disco. However I do have many more bands I like.
I use a lot of websites. When my browser starts up it opens Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Tumblr on start up. I use all four of these every day, using YouTube the most. I recommend all of these websites as they are fun good social networking sites. I also visit websites that have funny pictures of cats on. Such as icanhazcheezburger.com.
I don't read very many newspapers or magazines. I sometimes read the Metro on the train to school however.
I play a lot of games. Currently I play Minecraft, SWKOTOR, SWTOR, WoW, Perfect World, LoL, Battlefield 3, Skyrim, Fifa 12, COD Modern Warfare 2, Assassin's Creed series, Halo, Portal 1+2, Counterstrike, Amnesia, Left 4 Dead 2, Facade, Slender and many more. The game I enjoy the most is Minecraft at the moment however I recommend all of these games because they are all very good. I'm also currently saving up to buy a few new games, Guild Wars 2, Assassin's Creed 3 and Fifa 13 along with some others.

Thank you for your time.