• low-medium budget Hollywood film ($25m), because it’s a risk-taking idea that challenges ideologies
• Companies involved – Levantine Films, Peter Chernin Entertainment, Fox 2000
• Fox 2000 liked the idea of having an idea that was different even though it’s risky, which could have high rewards because it’s not a common thing so is niche to the film industry
• Audiences liked the idea that it challenged dominant ideas and spoke about real issue such as race
• budget = $25m. Gross revenue = $236m = 9.44 times the original budget, Hidden Figures was a successful film

• Provides information, advice or entertainment to the public
• Don’t try to make a profit
• eg the BBC, Channel 4
• suggested by Seaton

Stephen Neale – UK-based film theorist, says that genres consist of repeated features (repertoire of elements and differences, views genre as a process

Repertoire of elements – repeated features that are identical and recognisable as a specif genre eg horror = dark, jump scares, night, groups of people

Corpus – Genres evolve as new texts are added to similar texts, some differences are added to engage the audience, body of the genre

Hybridisation – The merging of different genres to create a sub-genre , more than one genre in a text

Historic specificity – Genres that are associated with certain periods of time and were popular at a certain time

Repetition and sameness – Texts could get boring if the they’re exactly the same as other texts

Variation and change – Variations / new features need to be added so the audience remains interested and doesn’t feel like it’s something they’ve seen before

Narrative image – Tells a story through moving image, and closely follows a narrative structure to similar texts in that genre

Expectations and hypotheses – Audiences like to predict what’s going to happen, eg in a horror film you can tell when something’s going to happen like a jump scare because the music builds up or it’s silent and the camera’s moving rapidly between shots

Suspend disbelief – The audience needs to care about the characters in order for them to remain interested in the text this can be done by making them think a certain thing may happen (audience positioning)

Generic regime of verisimilitude – making things very similar so they’re believable

• Conventions and rules – There are certain rules / structures / features that need to be included in a text to make it a certain genre

• Sub-genre – A genre that has derived from the original main genre but doesn’t contain all of the required features and can have differences to this as well

Genres of order – Value individualism and personal sacrifice, violence justified in some situations, heroes’ role = reinstate social order

genres of integration – Value collectives and groups who communicate and operate for the general good, integrate threat to equilibrium to community

• ‘Genre as cultural category’ –

CATEGORY	SIMILARITIES	DIFFERENCES	THEORY
CHARACTERS	-the detective who has a ‘natural’ instinct for law and order -female protagonists	The Killing, The missing has the main detective as female	PROPP
NARRATIVE	-the first episode often introduces a lot of different characters -has a peak due to the victim being discovered/found	-missing peaks at start (girl comes back), killing starts at equilibrium (don’t know severity of case)	TODOROV
THEMES	-the use of binary oppositions around familiar themes: family, community, law and order, justice. -crime drama	–	LEVI-STRAUSS
REPRESENTATION	-reactionary representations of police, family, law and order, urban/rural -radical representations of the main detective(female)	–	SEMIOTICS
TECHNICAL CODES / LANGUAGE OF MOVING IMAGE (music, setting, props, lighting, use of camera, editing etc)	-opening montage sequence that often gives clues as to the whole series – themes, locations, characters, events etc. -fast paced -a lot shown to show how dramatic it Is and jam packed	-killing has less dramatic music than missing

Theorist	What does it mean (in your own words)	How does it apply to the advert (in your own words)
Equilibrium	Start-middle-end, starts and ends in equilibrium, spikes 1 way in the middle then balances out again in the end.	Influencers are just finding their room, then the product’s brought out and the butler puts it on and gets ‘glamed up’, less excitment more calm
Binary Opposition	Always a conflict/opposition in a story. this helps the receivers of the image to come to a conclusion (usually to agree with the message given), because humans like to think and if it was just 1 way then they’d probably be put off of the idea.	-Boring butler life – happy + excited – Plain room (white walls) – Gold product
Character Types	There’s always the same TYPES of character (person or thing) in every moving image, eg hero, villain, victim

Character type relation to advert:

Hero – Influencers (MannyMua + Shayla), Mascara – (product), it makes you feel like a boss and and feel better about yourself

Villain – Money (expensive luxury product)

Victim – Butler – Watching influencers enjoying themselves whilst he’s just doing his job, could fall victim to popularity (following the crowd)

Technical Code	Denotation (ie what is it – simply describe what you see / hear)	Connotation (ie what does it signify)
Setting	Flat, high up	Power
Clothing	Dull ordinary clothes change to shimmery gold clothing	Change in peresective, feel like a boss
NVC	Shift in representation of identity	Identity is becoming more fluid and stereotypes are changing
Dialogue	Energetic	Shows enthusiasm
Sound Effect	Swoosh	Shows the sudden change in perspective / identity. (transformation)
Music	Upbeat	Confidence and enthusiasm
Camera shot size	Wide angle	It’s a lot to take in
Camera movement	Changes angle	Different perspectives / views, how the product can change the way you feel
Editing

In this essay, I am going to compare the representation of gender in Tomb Raider to the men’s health magazine. In order to do this, firstly I am going to compare the dominant signifiers and how they have been manipulated to present a certain ideology; secondly, I am going to talk about how the game’s front and back covers and magazine compare against stereotypes / counter-types. 

In both Tomb Raider and the Men’s health magazine, the dominant signifier (iconic signs), on the front covers are the stereotypical image of what the media has manipulated their audience to believe is ‘normal’, which has been accepted as the dominant ideology of how men and women should be represented, and how they should look in real life. These dominant signifiers (Lara croft, and the man), have been manipulated to appeal to a certain audience, for example in Tomb Raider, Lara croft has been overly sexualised by the creators of the game, in order to appeal to the dominant section of the gaming industry, which is male gamers. They did this by making her breasts and butt the focus of the games cover by putting the leading lines (the title) in between these features of the female body, they also made her stand in a twisted position to accentuate these features. This emphasis is also shown in the images of the gameplay on the back cover where Lara’s breasts or butt are the focus of the shot. You could argue that this makes tomb raider a radical text because she has been positioned in a way that looks unnatural. This could be supported by the fact that in video games, women are usually represented as the characters that need saving by the heroic man, whereas in Tomb raider Lara croft is presented as a strong, independent woman who can fight for herself. Furthermore, this point can be supported by the blog about how Lara has evolved which states that Lara knows how to use more guns than most military personnel. However, this could also make it a reactionary text, because if this were to occur repeatedly, then this would become the dominant ideology of what a woman should be like.  

Similarly, the dominant signifier in the men’s health magazine (the man), has been presented as a strong and muscly man who is standing in a confident position, in a way that makes the audience focus on the muscles. This is a radical text because most men don’t look like that in real life, so this is an inaccurate representation of the typical male body This could also make people feel insecure about the way they look due to the manipulation of the media and the effect it has on how people view themselves in terms of identity and gender. The man on this front cover isn’t in a twisted position like Lara croft is in Tomb Raider, instead he’s in a forward stance that shows dominance and strength. 

In terms of stereotypes, gender is represented differently in Tomb Raider and the men’s health magazine. In Tomb Raider Lara croft is presented as a counter-type that challenges the ideology that women aren’t as strong as men and that they need men in order to survive. However, in Tomb Raider this isn’t the case, Lara croft is presented as a strong woman who isn’t afraid to roam the tomb alone, and by looking at the front cover and the T-Rex on the back cover, you can assume that she’s fierce and will confidently pull the trigger to kill. On the other hand, in the men’s health magazine, gender is represented as a stereotypical man, who’s dominant and doesn’t need anyone to tell him what to do. On page 17 of the magazine there’s an arrow which points to the man’s biceps which says, ‘one to aspire to’, this shows the media further manipulating the intended audience to become a stereotypical man, and putting them in a place where they feel insecure about themselves and manipulates them into wanting to look like the cover (audience positioning).       

To conclude, in both Tomb Raider and the men’s health magazine, gender is represented as an ideology of what is the ‘right’ way to look for both males and females. This is presented as a negative stereotype because it places the audience / receivers of the media in a position where they feel insecure about how they look and feel like they need to look a certain way to be accepted by society. This is an example of Constructed Reality. Both show a sense of hegemony because games developers are predominantly male, and in the magazine the males are presented as being strong and confident. 

• Fluidity of identity – There’s not a fixed conception of what identity is so there’s fluidity/flexibility in how it can be presented.
• Constructed identity – When the media presents identity in a certain way that they want people to believe is the right way to be.
• Negotiated identity – When identity is negotiated into an agreement which is their ideal way to represent it.
• Collective identity – The identity of a whole group rather than an individual. And how they’re perceived to be in the modern world.

• Positive and negative stereotypes – Positive stereotypes are stereotypes that show off something good about a person. Negative stereotypes are stereotypes that show of something bad about a person.

• Counter-types – Stereotypical character that acts against the dominant ideology of a stereotype
• Misrepresentation – When a certain group is presented in the wrong way
• Selective representation – Some groups of people are represented more than other groups
• Dominant ideology – The main idea/concept that is most widely believed by a large amount of people
• Constructed reality – Media presents things in a way that you believe is normal and the right way to be

• Hegemony – Leadership or dominance of a particular group over others
• Audience positioning – Media influences the position the audience is put into, in terms of the media form