*Fox Theme Tune Hits* New Item For Catalogue!!!!

Yes, you read that right... I actually have a new item to include in my catalogue... Don't be too shocked here!

I was surfing on Youtube, and I found a very interesting video... It was Called "The Donna Read Image of Women" (Youtube link). It basically outlines how women tend to be represented in most American sitcoms. The "Donna Read Image" is seen to be very common in sitcoms. The image basically shows women as stay at home housewives while the father goes to work and makes a living. Also, the women that are shown to be like this are never seen to be out of the house, and most of the time have no friends. The video claims this image of women to be outdated, therefore a bit of a biased video, but in some cases very true. It does however mention some sitcoms like the US version of "The Office", where women are shown in a workplace, and there is even a married couple in the workplace, who met there (How often does that happen!?). This is a more positive and "In-date" representation of women, and according to the video: "Should be used more often".

This video is useful to use, because seeing this video now gives me an idea for my practical production.

Yes, you are getting two updates in one blog post, how lucky are you people today!?

Anyway, as I mentioned, the video gave me a good idea for what I want to do for my practical piece. I have decided I am going to make a moving image sitcom, which will involve the roles reversing: A Stay at home father, whilst the mother goes out to work with a full time job. Sound good? Well, heres more. It will be a brand new sitcom, I will shoot a short clip of it (Possibly an entire first half, which is about 10 mins), and this will introduce the narrative, theme and characters of the sitcom - I will post more when I actually have the full narrative! :)

In the mean time folks, have fun, keep moving onwards and upwards, and most importantly, work hard! Exams are fast looming on us...

Ok, here is some work that we have been doing today in Media. This is just some group work that we have been doing today to help with our coursework. Now, a lot of people though that doing this was pointless, but personally, and no, I'm NOT just saying this, but I think it comes in kind of handy, because, although for my practical piece, I'm not doing still image, it still helps me find out what I need to include... YEAH, I said it!

Lust and Love - Billboard Poster

There is a clear font and colour - Basically, it is easy to see because there colours are clear, and there is a nice bold font which makes it a lot easier to see from a distance. The colour goes with the background, as there is a clear contrast between the colour of the font and the colour of the black and white background.

The girl is looking directly at the camera, which means that she is directly communicating with the audience, and also she is shown to be sexy, which goes with the theme - sex and love, but she is also shown to be a vampire, which appeals to todays audience, as a lot of people are now into the sort of vampire and horror theme.

Positioning however is rather poor. A lot of it kind of looks like it has been thrown together. For example, the teeth in the picture has been photoshopped when they clearly didn't need to be. Not a lot of attention has been paid to detail - Like the blood does not look real at all, and the lips look like they have been painted. Since most of the words have been capitalized on the piece, maybe every word should have been capitalized, as it would make more sense and look better. It is just mainly technical errors with this piece, mainly going a bit over the top with the photoshopping.

We have also looked at the branding - A lot of TV has been branded now, each programme to its own - Which this piece fails to include.

Final grade that was given to this piece was either a high D or a Low C - Purely because there is an understanding there, and easily made into a higher grade.

Blues and Twos DVD Cover (The better one of the piece)

Images and fonts all relate to the genre. There are a lot of images of the Police, which DO relate to the genre, but there are a lot of pictures of the police, and it is unclear to see who the characters actually are.

The editing is very good - The colours mix in very well with the text that is used. They have also used the conventions of a DVD cover. There is a synopsis of the TV show at the back (And it has not been copy and pasted something that didn't match the show at all, like Chris told us about), there is an age rating, the DVD logo and everything that needs to be on a professional DVD cover (Including the barcode). Things like this show the attention to detail that the student has.

The group that did this DVD cover have decided that the DVD cover looks a bit too similar to popular ITV1 show "The Bill" (Now axed). This is true in the way that there is a lot of Police, and it sounds a bit similar to "The Bill", but the angle that I think the student was trying to take was the fact that, unlike "The Bill", the show is more character driven, and shows a different representation of the Police.

In terms of the detail, there is a few things missing, like the running time and also there is some information missing about the DVD itself - Like the running time and information about the series.

Final mark given to the piece was 31!

Magazine Front Cover - TV Choice

The images used on it appeal to the Target Audience. You can see different images relating to different programs, which make people will want to read it.

Basic magazine conventions are used - There is an issue number, barcode and price shown on there, which makes it seem more professional. However, representations of the women on the front cover could be argued.

The design looks kind of plain and very bland. It also looks very untidy and thrown together, which doesn't look very good. If I picked it up, I would put it back. It would be hard to see from a distance as well, which means the font needs to be bigger. One big issue though, the goober who made it actually made spelling mistakes (Thats basic English, come on!).

There is no consistency in the design. This makes it look messy, as the fonts are all different, and so are the colours. No one would buy it.

All of this put together just shows us that the student just threw this together at the last minute. There was no planning, and no preparation, and no listening to the advice! These are basic things that need to be done to get a higher grade. Terrible right?

Now, for these reasons, this piece has been given roughly 18 marks, thats an E man, come on! I don't ever wanna see this piece again!

Anyway, i'm going for a break now, see ya!