The video was released in 2016
The genre of the video is Hip-Hop and Rap – Steve Neel
It was nominated for NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Song – Contemporary award
Bradford Young directed the music video
Low Budget – Black and white, same location
Powerful message and meaning – lyrics and video – symbolism – Linking shots to meanings (prison)
Posted by Vivo
Common is a black, American man
Common is a rapper
Common is a activist of many rights and charity’s
Common is a Christian
Net-worth 45 million
Writer, singer, model, actor
1st commercial success was album was ‘Like water for chocolate’
His 2005 album was nominated for Best Rap Album at the 2006 Grammy Awards.
Bilal is an American Singer and songwriter
Bilia grew up in a religiously mixed household
Bilia was born in Pennsylvania
Bilia is forty years old
| CATEGORY | SIMILARITIES | DIFFERENCES | THEORY |
| CHARACTERS | the detective who has a ‘natural’ instinct for law and order | The Killing, The mising has the main detective as female Male sidekick | PROPP |
| NARRATIVE | the first episode often introduces a lot of different characters | Ended with death, usual starts with death | TODOROV |
| THEMES | the use of binary oppostions around familiar themes: family, community, law and order, justice. | Identity – female lead, male sidekick | LEVI-STRAUSS |
| REPRESENTATION | reactionary representations of police, family, law and order, urban/rural | Radical gender roles for Detectives | 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. |
| Theorist | What does it mean (in your own words) | How does it apply to the advert (in your own words) |
| Equilibrium | Story Structure – All stories follow a certain structure Beginning Middle — disruption End – resolution | Manny meeting Shayla in hotel room Makeup box arrives – putting makeup on ‘Bossed up’ – wearing makeup |
| Binary Opposition | A pair of related items with opposite meanings | Working in as hotel – Staying in a hotel Wearing makeup – no makeup plain colours – gold |
| Character Types | Stock characters Hero and Villain How many stories are there – only one, all follow the same structure. In ‘Bossed Up’ advert the character types are the Bell Boy = victim. MannyMUA and Shayla are the heroes. Makeup is also the hero and the natural/no makeup is the vilian |
Compare the representation of gender in both Men’s Health and Tomb raider
In this essay I am going to discuss both the portrayal of the male gender as seen in ‘Men’s Health Magazine’ and the portrayal of the female gender as shown in the video game cover ‘Tomb Raider’. I will discuss the representation of both and how it is conveyed as well as whether the texts are radical or reactionary.
The portrayal of the female gender as seen in the ‘Tomb Raider’ game cover is sexualised and objectified. The use of the character Lara Croft as the dominate signifier draws peoples attention towards her and her appearance rather than the game itself, detaching the protagonist from the context of the game and instead objectifying her and focusing on aestheticism of the character. This is seen through the strategic positioning of the character in the center of the cover, this is attained through the rule of thirds which draws direct attention to the character and the contortion of her body to emphasis certain features such as her breasts and de-emphasie certain features such as her waist. This is further seen by the title being placed across her middle and by the use of serif text forces the subconscious eye to draw attention to these features. Hence making her characterisation purely sexual. The representation of Lara Croft is representation the stereotypes and ideologies of the female gender. At the time this game was released it the portrayal of Lara Croft was radical due to the fact that prior to this time all protagonists in action games had been male and females were only portrayed as villainesses, victims or seductresses, the fact that this game created a ‘Female Indiana Jones character’ was initially to ‘avoid a law suite’ however, lead to the development and varied representation of female protagonists in future games. However, to today’s audience might view this cover as reactionary as the objectification of female is typical on most game covers. Also by creating a female character who has ‘typical’ masculine, action game qualities such as, the iconic signs of ‘the gun, muscles, backpack’ suggests that a female protagonist has to adopt certain stereotypical masculine qualities to be applicable/ associated with action games and to be supported by the dominate ideology of hero-sexual, Christian, Caucasian males.
Similarly, the portrayal of the male gender can be seen from the use of ‘Vin Diesel’, a stereotypical masculine male as the dominate signifier. The focuses on the dominate signifier is again emphasised by the positioning in the center of the cover, attained through the use of the rule of thirds. The representation of the male gender here is muscular and physical fit. This is shown through the position of the dominate signifier and how he is contorted to emphasises muscle and minims body weight such as ‘his arm slightly outstretched and shiny’. This magazine also uses a juxtaposition of colour and lighting to represent males, by using ‘a mixture of black and white colours’ which has the indexical connotation of good and bad, positive and negative. Light colours and shine have been added to define the muscles and muscular form and used black/shaded the un-muscle defined areas showing that the stereotype of strong muscles bound masculinity is ‘a good/positive’ thing and should be seen and supported whereas, less muscular areas are hidden and shaded supposedly ‘negative and non-masculine.’ Through the presentation of the male gender shown on the cover of this magazine we can see that this magazine adopts a reactionary, stereotypical approach towards the presentation of males as it demonstrate and complies with, the typical conventions of male stereotype. The audience would see it as the idealised version of a male and perhaps the unrealistic body aims and representation of masculinity as supported by the dominate ideology.
In conclusion of both covers represent genders in a reactionary way, compiling to negative stereotypes and unrealistic expectations by objectifying their dominate signifiers and manipulating the audience into believe these dominate ideals.
To create my magazine cover, I first carried out research into different magazine covers to gain inspiration for my brief. From my research I discovered this example of a magazine front cover and subsequently decided to base my front cover of this style model.
Using the rule of thirds I constructed this rough plan for my cover. I have replicated the general structure of the style model and incorporated it alongside my own ideas to create my front cover. I developed many of my original ideas after constructing this plan, including the inclusion of plugs at the base, a sticker on the top left corner, this has increased the strength of the piece in looking like a professional magazine cover.
My intentions of the magazine are to create a wide target audience, this magazine is not bound to a particular gender or age group and instead it is aimed at anyone with an interest in gaming or the world of gaming. I have included a particular selection of articles on the front cover with the aims of appealing to a varied audience and trying to broaden the market of this magazine to encourage different interests and buyers of the magazine. These ideas are reflected through the use of the headings on the front cover. The inclusion of varied headings such as; a mixture of board gaming articles and digital gaming articles, tips and advice that might appeal to serious or armature gamers. Interviews with programmers which gamers or those with an interest in that particular field or career may find appealing. Competitions to actively involve buyers of this magazine, and luxury prizes to encourage more people to purchase the magazine.
The title of my new magazine for gamers is ‘Game On’. I have named it this because it has alternative interpretations; the Gamer colloquium for ‘the game has started’ as well as the continuation and future of gaming. It is the colour red because of it is semantically symbolic and associated with fire, energy, danger/hate, as well as passion/love, typical themes associated with gaming.
The background colour is white, often associated with new things, (digital games) or with tradition (board games). As the background is plain it can represent the start of a game, an empty board or new level.
For all text, excluding the title, I have used the same font and colour. However, I have varied the size, positioning of the text and put certain words in bold, (aiming to draw the focus to the key words) and done so in no particular order or structure, only with the explicit aims to make it varied and entertaining, such as gaming itself. I have used all black text to stand out from the white background, this has the connotation between good and bad, which is heavily associated with either board or digital games (as this magazine addition is equally focuses on both.)