CONTEXTUAL STUDIES: Sex and Sexuality

"Sexuality"
- Distinct from gender or biology

- Express sexual identity through inner feelings and external behaviour

- Can also refer to it as sexual activity

- Visual presentations of sexual expression (eroticism/pornography)

- Identify representations of sexual expression (LGBT, asexualism, pansexualism)

Visual representation

Eroticism (erotica) Aesthetic depiction of sexuality, may not involve nudity

Pornography - Explicit depiction of sexuality, usually via nudity and graphic sexual activity

Media censorship

Depictions of sex and sexuality in media traditionally mediated by external censors

UK - broadcasting legislation, watchdogs and ofcom

US - FCC Federal communications commisions

Broadcast networks also have individual editorial guidelines

Moral majority also act as watchdogs

Sexual representation in TV and film historically tightly controlled until 1970's

First portrayals of nudity and gay characters

Stereotypes:

Libertine (Very open in her sexuality)
Camp (Gay stereotype)
Butch
Asexual (Don't have a defined gender)

Queer Theory
Theorists such as Judith Butler argue gender and sexuality are social constructs informed by media and representation.
Alternative to gay and lesbian critical theory which places sexuality in history, social and political contexts
Queer theory allows for re-interpretations

Freud and sexual theory
The unconscious - repressed or sublimated sexual desire expressed through subtext.
Polymorphism - existing in different forms (Sexual deviency)
Scopophilia/Voyeurism
Oedipal and Electra Complex

Agency has become new criterion for analysing representation

Gender Representation Presentation - Orphan Black (By Alex and Andrew)

Orphan Black is a show I have enjoyed since the start and I have always been fascinated by the representations of gender in the show as well.

I really like the fact that the main character(s) are women and at the same time men are seen as the less authoritative figures during the show. In a way it is the opposite to most shows where the opposite is true.

This goes against our ideology that most shows have men as "heroes" whilst generally women are a sidekick or a not so influential character in the show. Orphan Black is the opposite as Sarah/ All her clones are the dominant figures whilst the sidekicks are men (Her brother & ART) which for me at least is a nice change from the norm.

The show also shows the main characters trying to break the hegemony (leadership) that is put on them. Throughout the show Sarah and her ally clones are trying there best to defy the leadership of project Leda and try there best to find out the information they are trying to hide from everyone.

The idea of the pluralism theory is also prominent in the show. As I just mentioned  they are constantly trying to defy the "leaders" of Project Leda who are trying to control them. But the power is constantly ebbing and flowing between them as The "good" clones find out new information and in a way try to bribe PL for more information, however at the end of each series it does seem that the "good" clones have less power as it always ends in a bad cliffhanger for them.

The Marxist theory is also prominent throughout as both sides are constantly battling over the same subject and are both trying to outdo each other and always have the upper hand. They constantly are trying to find new ways to find new information out which sometimes leads the main characters to do crazy things for a small piece of information.

The media are also influencing the citizens in Orphan Black as most people think what Project Leda are doing is fine and only good but we see the other side of it where a lot of there projects are going wrong normally ending in death. However as Project Leda have such an influence on the media they really control what is broadcast and Sarah and her allies are trying to defy that and show the reality of what project leda is doing.

The audience of the show will generally be on the side of sarah and her allies but it could be seen that she is also doing a lot of wrong to find her eventual right. She does still kill and hurt people to find her facts, so does this make her bad as well? Of course it is in the eye of the viewer what is right and what is not but we are biased to watch as if we are on the side of Sarah even though she still does a lot wrong as well.

Documentary Unit - Factual Programming

Conventions and common themes:
Commentary
Archive
Interview
Characters
Narrative
Angle of the story
Actuality driven (Events we are keeping up with)
Sequences
Reconstruction
Recreate and retell reality
Values and ideology
Doesn't need to be all of them but can be a combination of a few of them

All films fictional or factual are constructed to some degree
All films will have a reality of the truth

Truths and controversy:
In 2007 BBC's reputation was damaged after creating fake competitions which they where fined £400,000 for.
In 2011 they also faked footage of an animal being born which was actually filmed in an animal park

Current affair programmes are normally reporter led

Finding the truth: Some factual films are funded by outside sources. You have to be wary of who is paying for the project because they could be selling you something or showing it to you from a certain viewpoint.

Documentary Unit - Ideas and How To Find Them - Zoe

- Have to come up with ideas - lots of them every week 

- Write them up and reinforce your message

- Deal with rejection because it will happen

- It will evolve multiple times before the final idea is complete.

"The school that turned Chinese"

Make sure you keep the attention, they know that you will generally lose concentration after 10mins.

Make sure you have strong characters, they are what people are interested in, if they are boring then people will turn off.

The show had an end result, which was an impact.

It went "Viral" in China because they found it interesting.

Curiosity - Follow up on things that fascinate you.

Anniversaries are a good starting point.

"Dreams of a Life" is a good idea because it the worry that something like that would happen to you. People are afraid of being alone and this show might only heighten those fears. 

Sources - Contacts, it's easier to do something you have knowledge of and have possible contacts.

Other Media - Look in papers and listen to the radio because there are possible ideas in there.

Behind the scenes - Scoop up all the key interviews about a seminal moment.

Look at what people are reading & Watching - What is the hot topic list of what people are talking about right now?

Brainstorming with energetic people - say what you really think

Interesting locations - Interesting location, generate an idea or film through that.

Investigative - Go to the main, original story. 

Proceed with caution - you need to make sure that it's genuine and the people are authentic. 

Amazing footage - user generated or archive footage to emphasise a point. There is a huge range of content tools online which can help find what you want to find. 

A good title or a well worn format.

Ideas don't come from sitting in front of a computer, relax and something will come more likely.

Have a Big Question:

Is it going to leave the audience in anticipation?

What is it that they find out and see resolved?

Make sure the beginning of it is great because that is what gives the viewer an idea of what is to come (getting the viewer hooked)

Relatable themes are good because it all affects us - Does the story happy / sad or play on our fears

Documentary Unit - Initial Ideas

In our group (George, Ethan and myself) we had a few initial ideas plus one that I developed further.

Initial Ideas:

- Abandoned pets and Animal rescue sanctuaries

- Americanism's in English society

- How has Brexit affected different age groups?

- Do the elderly have a better quality of life than just a few years ago?

- Do people spend too much time gaming?

The one i wanted to expand further is the animal rescue idea. We know that many animals are brought without thinking about future consequences and possibilities, meaning lots of animals are abandoned and left to fight for themselves. 

I would really like to investigate this further as our family adopted 3 abandoned cats from Raystede a few years ago and even though you are told some of the story about what happened there must be lots of details they don't say as it must be pretty upsetting.

We did decide as a group that it was a good ideas as a basis which we could develop into something that could suit a BBC 3/Online audience. We know that BBC 3 needs to have some edge to it as that what there viewers like. We thought showing the reality of what animals have to go through could be shocking but would also be hard to get access too at the same time.

We haven't done much research into it right not but as an initial idea we think it is the strongest of the ones that we have. Plus I have contact with Raystede and Ethan has contacts at a Zoo and also a cat rescue center so it could be an idea that we could develop with those contacts. 

We will get feedback from Zoe and Helen on this idea and I'm sure it can be developed easily into something for BBC 3 and also at the same time something with an interesting story.

Documentary Unit Introduction

Challenge yourself, being original is key. Even if it’s been covered try and look at it from a different angle.

“Team spirit” Is the motto

Research, develop and construct your documentary to tell this story.

Unit Aims:

Promote understanding of a commissioned piece of work.

Enable understanding of ethical concerns of impacts of representation

To facilitate research which supports and develops your ideas of storytelling

To support the development of professional ideology

Film must be outlined and consider relevant brand and audience expectations (Barb)

Pitching your ideas as a GROUP

Groups do get marked differently, the individual input from each person.

Bullet points and heading

Outcomes:

Demonstrate creative skills in response to the brief

Develop broadcast strategies for clients and audiences

Employ research methods

Deploy management skills

30% online portfolio // 70% documentary portfolio including the final project and all work to get there.

Establishing Shots

Actuality Interviews (Interviewing whilst they’re doing something)

GV’S (Framed up shots)

Sequences – Compress time

Commentary

Strong characters (Experts in their own right)

Working title

Story synopsis

Character profiles

Location details including recce shots

Proposed style, narrative

Draft script 31^st March

Final sign off 7^th April

Shoot weeks 25^th April – 5^th May

Sync assembly 10^th may

Rough cut 12^th may

Fine cut 17^th may

Final film submitted 19^th May           

Alex Baldwin Directs John Fawcett's Orphan Black FINAL CUT

Here is the final cut for my my project remaking John Fawcett's Orphan Black.

STARRING

JESSICA    LAWLOR   as    SARAH / BETH

JAMIE   SEYMOUR-KNIGHTS   as   FELIX

GEORGE   NICHOLLS  as   ENRAGED    PASSENGER

ALEX    BALDWIN   as   cafe  guy

ANDREW   AYRES   as   PLATFORM  ANNOUNCER

--

DIRECTED    BY : ALEX    BALDWIN

CAMERA:  GEORGE    NICHOLLS

EDITING & SOUND: ALEX    BALDWIN

Project Evaluation - Directing John Fawcett's Orphan Black

What Worked and Went Well?

Firstly, I will say that after day 1 of filming I was so worried because I thought that I had no content, however after day 2 and some reflection time I felt like I had good coverage bar 1 or 2 areas which I will talk about later.

I also feel like I did a good job with actors, whilst of course I was worried at any second they’d drop out and say they couldn’t come when we started filming they were very understanding that it was my first time using actors with experience so I was learning off them about what they wanted to know. Hopefully I can work with them again in the future as they did have a true passion for the project which made it a lot easier on my end.

I also liked the majority of the shots I got, of course somewhere ever so slightly out of focus and other just where not great but in the actual edit I had enough choice to go through and filter out the no so good stuff.

I recorded a buzz track and that was thanks to Steve Finn, without him I think most wouldn’t have known it was a thing. It helped keep the audio similar in the background even though sometimes the audio could be a little jumpy.

I liked the editing process, I was mostly not around to get feedback but thanks to Simon back and forth over email we selectively improved it and I think the outcome is much better than at the start of the week when I was a little worried how it was all going to be done in time! This included the audio mixing which was a challenge but at the same time interesting as I’d never done it to this extent before. I think the effects and music I used was very effective and it’s one of my favourite parts about my project.

Finally, I think that the planning this time was a lot less hectic for me, I knew slightly more about it so I was not as worried about it and it went a lot smoother. I also thanked all my locations after we had filmed because they really made it a pleasant experience and helped us if we needed it.

What Didn’t go so well?

I struggled with sound whilst filming in such a public place. People shouting and in general being loud did sometimes mean if the actor was not emphasising enough that you could not hear them. This is probably see in my edit as there are some rough cuts from one audio clip to the next but I tried my best to nullify the sharpness with transitions and audio mixing.

You can probably tell from my film I had to use the clip of the train coming into the station 3 times. Whilst watching it a first time you may not notice, you would do after seeing it a few times. It was annoying but unfortunately, I could not go back and record because the trains only ran weekends after I filmed, in which I was not available. This would have been the biggest single shot I would have liked to gone and filmed again.

An annoying problem I realised whilst editing was I had a smudge on the lens, this meant for one shot only it kind of ruins it. Unfortunately, there is nothing I could do about it, at the time from the tiny display everything looked ok but once I realised I just made sure it didn’t frustrate me too much because I realised that there is nothing I could do about it.

What I learned

I think what I learned most was how to deal with actors. I was talking to Jessica and Jamie and asking them what they wanted from me to help them understand what’s going on. They told me some of the “do’s and don’ts” which really helped me out and hopefully will do for the future.

I also learned how to edit sound a lot better. I know still I’m at the very beginning but in general I got the concept of why sound is so important to making a show good or bad. I think if I compare this to my first project, I’m already way advanced in comparison to what I knew at the start of the course.

Planning was also a big part of what I learned, making sure A and B are at a location at X time was tough to organise but also a nice challenge at the same time and that was another part for my first project that had time spent on it, but nowhere as much time as this project.

Apart from that I learned a lot in premier in terms of editing, little things I didn’t know before but now I know which make the editing process more enjoyable and a slicker experience.

What would I develop and change?

The biggest thing I’d change or re shoot are the scene where the camera is smudged and get more footage of the train coming towards the station because that let it down a bit for me.

I would also probably choose a different scene, I loved doing this project but clones and a train hitting someone was probably a little too much for me right now to look good and properly realistic. However maybe knowing what I know now I would be able to make this scene feel more realistic and maybe it would come out a lot better. It’s good to get the negative experiences as well so you can learn from them.

I would also like to have used some more interesting ways of filming (drone and dolly) but I realise I should have booked the dolly earlier and, I should have known that a drone in a public place and next to a train line would not be accepted under the risk assessment. This means I should have planned a little more NOT using the drone as I did have some shots specifically for the drone.

Finally, I would probably change the location of the café to somewhere quieter. I didn’t think about it until we filmed but we filmed during a school half term so it was much busier than I really expected. In one way, this was good as the trains where running daily but it also meant that the café scene was very hard to film, including some people who wanted to shout stuff into the camera whilst filming.

I really enjoyed this project, it was tough but rewarding at the same time because I really liked some of the shots and the final project came out better than expected after I looked through it after day 1!