...Med 6 Practice Essay...

Using a comparison of two texts as a starting point, consider the issue and debates that they raise

The two texts that are being compared is a ‘BBC Radio times Magazine’ published April 1976 London and the opening sequence of American TV programme ‘ER’ season 13, 2007. The ‘BBC Radio times Magazine’ lists all TV and radio programmes that are air on the BBC network. The opening sequence of ‘ER’ aims to introduce the characters of the Hospital drama series.

Both texts ‘BBC Radio times Magazine’ and the opening sequence of ‘ER’ are centred on the same genre which is Hospital drama. Clearly for the Radio times this is seen from looking at the iconographic props that are seen from the front cover like the X-ray print and the typical nurse uniform, being the typical repertoire of genre. From looking at the opening sequence of ‘ER’ it follows the general conventions of the genre, the setting gives us the hint that it set in a hospital, we see iconographic scenes of patients on ward beds, an ambulance arriving in emergency, and Defibrillators being used, these are typical repertoires of the genre. The colours also connote state of emergency as the colour blue is used.

The editing of the opening sequence of ‘ER’ is fast paced, the reason for this can be that the programme wants to introduce the drama quick as possible, also display the characters on screen to show who is starring in the drama. The other meaning of presenting a fast paced opening sequence is that it reflects the type of narrative it is and generally how the atmosphere of Hospitals are like. The non-diegetic music that is played over the opening sequence is quite intense which creates a mood for the audience, engaging them right from the start.

The audience will have visceral pleasures, where they see different scenes being shown of the drama series, which pulls together a opening sequence, our mood changes to different scenes that are shown, just like at different points on a rollercoaster ride. This would also attract the genre communities which enjoy watching the particular genre. The audience for BBC’s programme ‘Angels’ will initially be females, because they would identify themselves with the characters. Plus BBC is a mass audience institution which already has a set audience, therefore fans of BBC will definitely watch their programmes, more than looking back at the 1970s there was not a variety of channels to select from compared to today, where there are many competing institutions like Sky, Virgin, BT.

Women that are shown in the Radio times, highlight the female workforce during the 1970s in hospitals, which subverted the typical house-wives stereotype. Yet these females are nurses, which are at the bottom of the hierarchy compared to Doctors and Surgeons, this under-represents them being inferior to their seniors, it creates sense of patriarchy as these five women are just nurses. Although the stereotype of nurses is being fulfilled as we usually see female nurses in hospitals. If this advert was to be made in today’s time, and then we would not see all white-Caucasian nurses, they would be from different ethnic backgrounds. If we had seen all white Caucasian female nurses on the front cover today, it would be portray the ideology of racism, and as it is a regional print for London, presently this would be invalid as London is very multi-cultural. The opening sequence of the American TV series ‘ER’ displays both genders, however the first character that is introduced is male doctor, this signifies that the role of a Doctor is commonly held by males and they are more skilled, if we had seen a female character being introduced first then there would had been greater impact to the representation of females. However we do see female characters on screen, most of them are white-Caucasian, however only one of them is an Asian female which has seen to be centric, this is because the character ‘Parminder Nagra’ is shown many times through the opening sequence, showing that Asian women are active and are successful, this breaks the stereotype of the typical housewife, but supports the stereotype of Asians becoming doctors/surgeons.

The Institutions of these texts are completely different, for the Radio times front cover of programme ‘Angels’, BBC are the makers of it who are a British media institution. BBC aims to inform, educate and entertain, as the programme ‘Angels’ shows the life of nurses in hospitals it fulfils it’s missions statement which was though by Lord Reithian. The programme ‘ER’ is an American TV series which is aired on NBC, as this institution makes high budgeted dramas, it was able to show this type of genre in a realistic way which inevitably received many viewings, not only that but this programme is also available on NBC HD (High Definition) which is more appealing for contemporary people.

The ‘Radio times’ front cover does not clearly show its narrative; however by looking at the picture we can build a narrative around it, being a hospital drama. There are binary oppositions that are illustrated, which is the title ‘Angels’ denotating someone good and the genre being Hospital drama denotating the fight of disease. Other enigmas that are created are by the text information which states ‘too good to be true’ which can reflect the narrative.

‘Angels’ has a great impact on feminism, as this would be a breakthrough for them, showing that females are active and not passive, yet not being objectified in anyway. Although we do not see any other ethnicity in the picture, which states that BBC encouraged the invisibility of ethnic minorities, as confronter Enoch Powell had fed the idea of ‘rivers of blood’ into the people, so ethnic minorities were never seen in programmes as institutions thought them as the ‘other’. However if we look at the remake of ‘Angels’ women are now being more objectified which backs up Laura Mulvey’s theory of women being the object of the male gaze. Although in the remake version we see an Asian character playing a role of a nurse yet is a lesbian which mis-represents Asians, the token Asian female in the drama.

‘ER’ on the other hand also shows tokenism of Asian and black ethnicity, however according to the opening sequence, the Asian female is seen to hold a major role, as she has been shown a couple of times. This portrays Asians being successful and skilful, furthermore highlighting the rise of the brown pound. This shows how multicultural the society in America and in the UK is.

Cover Work..Analysing 2 Film Trailers (Practice Med6)

Nightmare on Elm Street Trailer

Death Tunnel Trailer

Similarities
- Mainly female character(s) are involved in both trailers
- Following the generic conventions of Horror (genre)
- Events happening to kids/students, who are unmarried
- Blood is involved; props such as daggers/knives are used. Diegetic sound used: Screams. Non-Diegetic sound: Music

Differences
- ‘Death Tunnel’ has objectified women way more than in ‘Nightmare of elm Street
- ‘Death Tunnel’ has a more modern way of following the genre elements compared to ‘Nightmare of elm Street’
- ‘Death Tunnel’ narrative based around real events at ‘Waverly Hills Sanatorium’ whereas ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ is imaginary and fictionous.
- Trailer of ‘Death tunnel’ provides more text information in the trailer such as website (telling us how new/modern it is) other text which help us to understand the narrative, reviews by critics/magazines and other credits. Whereas in ‘Nightmare on Elm street’ we just see the title of the film half way through the trailer and finally at the end with the directors name and production/distribution company.
- The style of editing in Nightmare on Elm street is very plain, just straight cuts, whereas in Death tunnel editing is completely different such as having fast paced cuts, fades, blurs and other fancy/special edits.
- Music: Death Tunnel has Rock Music, Nightmare on Elm Street has more subtle eerie music, piano/keyboard based.
- From different centuries, one is new and other is old.

Issues & Debates
- Patriarchy still valid, Voice over done by a man.
- Increasing objectification of women over time.

S.H.E.P
Social: Women are sinners, and if they are they get punishments for it.
Historical: ‘Death tunnel’ based around true events, showing history of ‘Waverly Hills Sanatorium’

Other Related texts
Wes Craven Directed: ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ ‘The hills have eyes’ ‘Last house on the left’

Essay

The two texts which I comparing are ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ directed by Wes Craven, 1984 and ‘Death Tunnel’directed by Philip Adrian Booth, 2005. Both of these texts are trailers which are there to attract the targeted audiences, they aim to sell the film through these trailers, which has a great impact on the influencing the audience to go and watch the film.

The ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ trailer has a complete different style of editing. Throughout the trailer we don’t see any scenes flowing along, yet we see a narrative building up, there are only straight cuts shown which gives us a new scene; very different from the previous. comparing this to ‘Death tunnel’ we are shown many different editing techniques, such as fades, blurs, straight cuts and other fancy edits which gives the trailer a kick, it also is successful in building up a generic narrative. The type of editing which is used in ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ is very plain, this does not build up any tension but some drastic emotions one after the other, however ‘Death Tunnel’ builds tension up along, we expect to see more after the first scene. This clearly shows that these films are not from the same era, it can be quite easily differentiated.

The characters that are shown in both films are victims of death, which follows the generic conventions of the genre which is horror and slasher. Both films have shown female victims of the predator(s) that is ‘Freddy Kruger’ for Nightmare on Elm Street and ‘the five ghosts’ for Death Tunnel. This can be linked to the ideology ‘patriarchy’ because the idea of the females in the trailers being controlled by the predator shows some sort of patriarchy, which is in Nightmare on Elm Street by Freddy Kruger which is a man, and in Death Tunnel by the five ghosts, which shows that women are easily victimised and so are shown being dominated under some sort of figure, foreseeing it to be man. These films also reinforce objectification, not that the trailers show or expose explicit scenes of women of any kind, yet what we see is that women are being put on screen, where we as viewers are seeing them, just like voyeurs. Linking this to audience ,we definitely know that the target audience are both male and females, because the genre aims at both genders although due to the slasher genre, we expect to see more male audiences, which tells us that there would be the ‘male gaze’ where women are objectified.

The representation of women is clearly shown through the props, acting and dialogues. In Nightmare on Elm Street, we see that the female protagonist is scantily clad on the bed yet her boyfriend out of bed, whereby guessing they just had a sexual intercourse. We assume that they are not married and that the female is a sinner for premarital sex, this is why she is getting punished through these nightmares. this follows the conventions of the typical genre. Although the idea that comes across is that both films are ostensibly promoting violence against women.

The lighting in both trailers is low-key, which supports the generic elements of the genre. Darker colours show mysteriousness, which makes the audience feel uncomfortable to see around and which finally they identify themselves with the character, as if they are in their position searching their way. The non-diegetic music played in the background of both trailers differ from each other, ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ plays rather subtle eerie, piano/keyboard based music yet it is parallel, which is very traditional for horror films. however ‘Death Tunnel’ has rock Music being played over half way of the trailer which can be contrapuntal or parallel towards the trailer, though modern films usually have adapted to this idea as it supports the intense graphic violence being shown, yet it can be argued that how rock music is relevant to horror genre in general. Referring to ’28 days later’ (2003) another horror film, also plays rock music in the background. Looking at both films the voice-over is done by a man, which shows since 1984 and till today patriarchy is still valid in society.

Both films are from the Hollywood industry, which are able to create high-budgeted films. The Hollywood industry is very big, without a doubt having mass audiences. ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ directed by Wes craven, who produced similar films such as ‘The hills have eyes’ and ‘Last house on the left’ and ‘Scream’ his films are seen by genre communities, which love the horror genre, and cultural communities who are the fans. ‘Death Tunnel’ directed by Philip Adrian Booth who is not very well known, although the film will receive viewings due to the genre communities and the truth behind the whole narrative. Overall the institution also impacts on appealing the audience to see the film.

..Media Guardian H/W...

Guardian tops press awards nominations

The Guardian has landed the most nominations for an individual newspaper for this year's British Press Awards with 14 on the shortlists published today.
In terms of overall nominations, close behind the Guardian is the Sunday Times with 13, the Independent with 12 and the Times with 11.
Tom Newton Dunn, the Sun's defence editor, is nominated three times, including for reporter of the year – along with his colleague John Kay – and scoop of the year, for his "Friendly fire kills Matty Hull story" story.
Newton Dunn is also shortlisted in the BPA's campaign of the year category, for the Sun's Help for Heroes initiative. He has already won the What the Papers' Say scoop of the year award for the Matty Hull story.
Overall, the Sun has nine BPA nominations, the same as the Daily Mail. The Mail on Sunday received eight nominations, while the Daily Mirror, the Financial Times and the Daily Telegraph share six each.
The Observer has five nominations and the Independent on Sunday and the Sunday Telegraph have two apiece. The Sunday Mirror has three nominations.
But there are no BPA nominations for the News of the World, the Daily Express, Sunday Express, Daily Star and Sunday Star
A News of the World source confirmed that the News International title did put forward entries for consideration by the BPA judges. However, Northern and Shell, publisher of the Express and Star titles, was unable to confirm at the time of publication whether any of their journalists or stories were put forward for nomination.
In the reporter of the year category, the Sun's Newton Dunn is up against competition from the Mail on Sunday's Dennis Rice, Andrew Gilligan of the London Evening Standard and the FT's Gillian Tett.
Others nominated for reporter of the year are Stephen Wright (Daily Mail), David Leppard (Sunday Times) and Lori Campbell (Sunday Mirror).
For scoop of the year, Newton Dunn faces rivals including the Daily Mirror's Stephen Moyes, David Leigh and Rob Evans of the Guardian, and the Sunday Times' Holly Watt and Robert Winnett.
The British Press Awards, organised by Press Gazette, were relaunched last year after a boycott in 2006 by Associated Newspapers and the Telegraph Media Group.
Shortlisted nominees were chosen by 100 judges drawn from all the national newspapers, the regional press and independent figures from the world of journalism.
The winners will be announced at the awards dinner on April 8 at the Grosvenor House hotel in London, hosted by Jon Snow.
Shortlists for newspaper of the year, journalist of the year and international journalist of the year are to be announced next week.