Critical Investigation: Task #2

Bibliographies

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Escoffery, D. S. (2006). How real is reality TV?: essays on representation and truth. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co..

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Hill, A. (2005). Reality TV: audiences and popular factual television. London: Routledge.

Meyers, M. (2008). Women in popular culture: representation and meaning. Cresskill, N.J.: Hampton Press.

Pozner, J. L. (2010). Reality bites back: the troubling truth about guilty pleasure TV. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press :.

Waters, M. (2011). Women on screen. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Samantha Van Dalen ( 17^th February 2010). Shadowlocked.com, Why are women portrayed so negatively in film. http://www.shadowlocked.com/2010021791/opinion-features/why-are-women-portrayed-so-negatively-in-film.html

Critical Investigation: Analysing Clips Task #1

Only way is Essex

The advertisement is done for promoting ‘new faces’ within the hit reality TV show Only way is Essex.  Throughout the advertisement they only show white aspirational rich looking people, who are all dressed glamorously but at the same time the women are seen as sexualised fake looking dolls showing most of their assets and full on make-up and the men are actually dressed smartly in suits. In some sense make it seem as if these women are over the top dressed trophy women. The high key lighting and top lighting that is used throughout the advert helps to exaggerate the glamorous look that they are trying to pull off.

As soon as they opened their mouths and words spoke out the most repeated words were “Ermm” for the questions that were being asked towards them the behind camera. Within the first 10 seconds of the advertisement for The Only way is Essex , one of the male cast members is trying to do a countdown for the introduction of the advert but couldn't even count down from numbers 5 to 1 but got it right on the second time using his fingers.  All of the characters within the only way is Essex are all represented as to be literally ‘stupid’ characters. Also the type of language that is used throughout the advert are typically Essex vocabulary words such as ‘shaatup’ and ‘reem’ to promote themselves and the city that they are from. This relates to the hypodermic needle theory which actually influences the audiences to actually think that this is how the people of Essex actually talk like. They also make the viewer’s think that they all actually lack common sense, as some can’t even seem to stay focused on the questions that their asked about and the rest don’t even understand basic vocabulary. This reinforces the stereotype of the people of Essex being stupid and lacking common sense all within this 1 minute advertisement as the more the clips change to another person the more we realise how much the cast of only way is Essex lack common sense.

All of the characters that are being shown are all beautiful men and women. This relates to the theory female gaze (Laura Mulvey) .This is done so that the male viewers can admire what they see for visual pleasure and also especially so that the females can also admire their looks and appearances and admire the fact of what makes the men admire them, which relates to the hypodermic needle as viewers will be influenced by this so that this can be copied by the female viewers themselves by copying their appearances and the way they act and thinking and also actually believing  that this how women are meant to be because male viewers admire them. The more viewers choose to watch this the more it would actually influence them to believe this.

The colours of the background that are used within all of the shots constantly change as each character changes, they use bright complimentary colour which connote fun, luxury and which the background tells us and helps create a sense of fun and exotic mood. The shots that they use are all medium close up length shots which are effectively used to show the face more clearly without getting too close and also show the background as being wide space, this most probably connotes freedom. The shots that are used are constantly changing after every 1-2 seconds showing a new face every time. Also the angle that the camera is placed at is straight ahead, this makes the viewers feel as if they are actually having a one to one with the cast members as they are answering questions to us.