Woolwich Attack Micro Essay

The case study I will be analysing is the Woolwich terrorist attack/Lee Rigby’s murder. The incident took place on the 22nd of May 2013; two men attacked and murdered a soldier as an act of revenge to all the people who have died through bombs in different Muslim territories. The incident was then broadcasted on several television news networks such as: ITV, BBC, Sky News, Al Jazeera etc. before the watershed. This in fact was what caused a lot of controversy. OFCOM are the communications regulator in UK, who regulate TV, Radio and other sorts of communication, they operate according to the Communications Act 2003. Thus they were the regulators who rose up regarding this television broadcast after receiving about 700-800 complaints about this being inappropriate for viewers. It was said to be unacceptable as the broadcast publicised footage of a man holding a machete and having blood all over his hands. This footage was then repeated several times on different stations, meaning the images were becoming so memorable and clear in people’s minds even children. This is a big issue as children shouldn’t be able to see such explicit and violent content because they can act on it evidence of this is the bobo doll experiment; the idea of kids copying something that they have immediately watched is bound to happen. However the different companies editorially justified the reason why they broadcasted the footage at this time as it was in the public’s interest and it was ‘integral to understanding the horrific incident’ as well as this they thought it was right to inform people immediately as it was so shocking. The media’s instant broadcast and there need to repeat the footage created a moral panic as they started to sensationalise the story making it much bigger than it was thus creating hysteria. People in power had to cancel their plans and call in for unexpected meetings based on this issue.

On the other hand some people may not have been so affected by this outbreak due to them being desensitized by violence. As society are becoming liberal, regulators for other forms of media like the BBFC and PEGI are becoming much more lenient meaning people have been exposed to too much violent scenes in films and games so when they watch this broadcast it wouldn’t have shocked them that much.

Personally I believe that OFCOM are the strictest regulator as they have to work on media that is recurring thus putting a lot of pressure on them which they have to contain. However in this case study OFCOM wasn’t really effective as the television stations had a good excuse to why they broadcasted this footage before the watershed. Overall I believe that OFCOM will only become more lenient in the next fifteen years due to the liberalism in this society. I still believe they will still have a strong ability to regulate programmes that breach the Human Rights. 

Evaluation - Question 3 - Relating old feedback to new feedback

Evidence of my draft trailer and the feedback i recieved to edit and make it the final one that i am now evaluating.

From this previous feedback, i realise that i now have more strengths for this new feedback and there are much more less weaknesses. Showing that i took all the previous feedback into consideration in order to please my target audience.

Evaluation - Question 3 - WhatsApp response

Besides my questionnaire, I asked some of my targeted audience for any strengths/weaknesses of the trailer. They responded to me through WhatsApp. This benefited me to get a more detailed insight of specific elements of my trailer besides the one word answers from my questions. This also opened my eyes to different aspects of my trailer that i never knew was strong. A lot of people also told me that they thought it was far more better than my last draft.

evaluation - q3 - imessage response

I asked five 16-19 year old - who are part of my target audience- to answer my evaluation survey for my trailer. I did this via using imessage.

iMessage Statistics

Evaluation - Question 3 - Introduction

There are several social sites that we have decided to use for our feedback. Here they are:

Evaluation - Question 3 - Our Trailer Questions

Our Final Synopsis: 

'Maria, Sam and Charlie move into their new university accommodation, ‘The Manor House’ which is a historic mansion that has been newly refurbished from a fire that happened in 1904. After settling into their new abode the girls encounter a dusty photo album that has pictures of a family who once lived in the mansion. This photo album disturbs the demonic spirit, Angela, who once lived in the mansion before the fire burnt it down.

After opening the photo album strange events begin to erupt, different supernatural occurrences begin to happen around the house which alarms the girls. They see different sightings of a ghostly figure through mirrors and windows.

Angela’s spirits ends up possessing Maria making her go against her friends. Maria’s main goal is to kill everyone who she knows first starting off with Sam and Charlie; will this work?'

Inspiration:

Our inspiration  for the synopsis of our film was 'The Conjuring' which has the synopsis of: 'In 1970, paranormal investigators and demonologists Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) and Ed (Patrick Wilson) Warren are summoned to the home of Carolyn (Lili Taylor) and Roger (Ron Livingston) Perron. The Perrons and their five daughters have recently moved into a secluded farmhouse, where a supernatural presence has made itself known. Though the manifestations are relatively benign at first, events soon escalate in horrifying fashion, especially after the Warrens discover the house's macabre history.' It inspired our ideas as we used the idea of a group of people moving into a new house and being haunted and possessed by a spirit of a dead person who once lived there. It is also the same sub-genre as our trailer; psychological and supernatural.

Question 1 - Does our trailer have a suitable length?
- YES
- NO

Question 2 - Does the pace help create tension?
- YES
- NO

QUESTION 3 - Could you clearly identify who was the protagonists and antagonist?
- YES
- NO

QUESTION 4 - Did the sound effects used help create more suspense?
- YES
- NO

QUESTION 5 - Did the captions help narrate the trailer successfully?
- YES
- NO

QUESTION 6 - What sub-genre do you think this film is?
- Slasher
- Psychological/Supernatural
- Zombie
- J-Horror

QUESTION 7 - Do you think our trailer is predictable?
- YES
- NO

QUESTION 8 - Would you say our trailer looks rather professional?
- YES
- NO

QUESTION 9 - Would you go and watch our film in cinema?
- YES
- NO

QUESTION 10 - Do you notice any specific strengths/weaknesses?

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"Exemplar JUNE 2014: HOW WELL DOES CONTEMPORARY MEDIA REGULATION PROTECT THE PUBLIC?"

The media that I will be analysing in this question will be film and games which are regulated by BBFC and PEGI. Firstly, film is regulated by the ‘British Board of Film Classification’ (BBFC) who were previously known as the ‘British Board of Film Censors’ when established in 1912. The change in their name was due to the term censors seeming to restricting. BBFC are a non-statutory business as they deal with regulating films without the governments input. Their sole purpose was to certify and classify any film that was to be released in any cinema in Britain. By 1984 ‘The Videos Recording Act’ meant that every film even videos that were created for hire and sale purposes also had to be regulated. The BBFC also used to regulate games but in 2003 the Pan European Games Information (PEGI) was established and by 2012 they took full control of regulating games. PEGI is the game regulator for games in Europe so they’re also non-statutory. Their main purpose is to help parents in Europe make a decision on what games they can buy their children by categorising games by their level of violence and sex; not difficulty which people normally think it is. This categorising is done by labelling the packaging of each game with a descriptor that has either a 3, 7, 12, 16 and 18 printed onto it.

Even though these regulators are in place, there are still problems that are faced with the regulation of different media. This is mostly caused by the growth and advancement of technology. For instance younger viewers can watch or play media products that are rated above their age online without their parents even knowing. For this reason BBFC and PEGI are trying different sorts of regulatory practices to make sure things like this don’t really happen. For instance in 2007 PEGI created PEGI online to protect younger viewers.

Call of Duty is a game that has caused a moral panic. PEGI rated the game 18 as it consists of gross violence and is really bloody. Its violence is also very realistic. This game is very controversial as it was named a reason for the death of a fourteen year old boy. In 2011 Callum Green hanged himself straight after playing Call of Duty which was rated above his age. This is evident that people who are younger than the specific age rating of a game are still trying to find a way to play it. You could argue that this shows that PEGI have a good system as they know what games wouldn’t be suitable for someone as we can see the damage it does and it is predominantly the parent’s fault as they’re buying the games for their children. However this isn’t absolutely accurate as Call of Duty has affected someone who is over 18, Anders Breivik was a Norwegian mass killer who claims that he used call of duty to help him on his attacks. This proves Martin Bakers theory to be wrong as people aren’t able to tell the difference from real and on screen violence. It also shows that it can be PEGI who are in the wrong by failing to give their games the right age rating.

In terms of films, Blue is the Warmest Colour was passed by the BBFC as an 18 uncut. It was rated 18 for having strong sex and very strong language. The film was released on November 22^nd 2013. It was based on a lesbian romance between a high school student and an arts college student. This film received several complaints as viewers thought it was too explicit as it included full nudity and sex scenes that lasted at least for ten minutes. These scenes were also filmed to look very realistic to viewers. People thought that this wasn’t appropriate as the main fictional character was a fifteen year old and if this was to happen in real life it would be deemed as illegal. However others may go against this as they believe once you’re 18 you can make the decision to watch any film. As well as this the film is a French film so the acts inside it can be seen as arty and a great portrayal of romance.

PEGI and the BBFC are not the only regulators who receive a lot of complaints, another form of media which is seen as being difficult to regulate is television. This job is done by OFCOM who are a statutory business. OFCOM tend to receive complaints after a show has been televised meaning they can be seen as not strict as people have been already exposed to the show. For instance, Celebrity Big Brother in 2016 had a member called Winston McKenzie who brought up very homophobic and discriminating comments. This show was broadcasted and then after it received several complaints however nothing could’ve been done; they couldn’t take it off because it had already been broadcasted; the damage had already been made.

To conclude I believe that media regulatory businesses do try very hard to protect the public but it is the public that decrease this effectiveness due to their use of catharsis; they act on everything they see as it brings an inner desire. I also feel like in the future regulation won’t be as strict as it is now, it would only get more lenient as people are now desensitized to violence and society is becoming more liberal so different things will be normal and acceptable in films and games.

Question 4 - Evaluation - Research and Planning 2

Weebly is another form of website that we use to present our work. It is very different from blogger as we can edit, design and build pages. This is the website that contains our research and planning; pre-production; post-production and evaluation. We presented work on each sub-pages by embedding videos, writing texts, uploading images and pasting our documents.
It enables us to put all our work from our individual blogger in one place. We can also see our progress with our project as if a page is full we know that we have covered that sector but obviously if it is empty then we have to complete the tasks needed for that page

This is a screenshot showing the tools that weebly gave us, they were really easy to use and get the hang of.


As an overall Weebly is a great website as it just made recording, reviewing and presenting our project so much simpler. We also found it great as it was very accessible, we could use it on the go, at home or at college and also it was accessible in terms of supporting different files meaning we could publish several applications on our page.

Logo Explanation

Snatch Productions Music Entertainment is one of the most popular music company in the industry at the moment competing alongside companies such as Sony Music Entertainment. They are known for their great recording artists, composers, top agents and promoters. Snatch Productions works alongside their subsidiary 'Motion Music Company'. Most of their clients feature on tracks and are supporting artist on tours with one another. This creates a high gross in profit as the parent company is getting money from different divisions.

Snatch Productions Home Videos is one of biggest pre-recorded media organisations worldwide. They make profits from realeasing several Snatch production films on different platforms such as their: normal DVD, Blu ray DVD disc and more digitally advanced Netflix. Films can be streamed for a reasonable certain price and can be bought on amazon or even feature on  amazon prime.

Snatch Productions Television is another major sector of Snatch Productions. The television studio broadcasts several programmes that are popular worldwide such as: Are you the Scariest? You Can Run But You Can't Hide. In addition to this, they also have different television channels like: Snatch 101, Horror Madness etc. These channels show on general satellite and basic cable.

Snatch Productions Interactive Entertainment is an industry that create several video and computer games. They have plenty of games that are involved with their films. For instance, Revenge has the gamers running away from Angela. This means that the interactive entertainment sector work alongside the film industry. This use of synergy increases profit sales for both sectors.

Brand Identity

Evaluation - Question 4 - Research and Planning 1

Blogger is a 'blog-publishing service'. We use it to present all of our individual work that we have done on behalf of the group. Blogger dates every single item that is published onto the blog. It also allows comments meaning we can get feedback from each member of our group telling us what they like with our work and what we need to prove on. On blogger we can posts: images, texts, embed online videos, hyperlinks etc. It is really easy to use and we didn't have to go through the long process of signing up as it linked with our google account.  Overall we were very pleased with our use of blogger as it enabled us to track one another as an individual rather a group - this made us see who and who wasn't on task.

Evaluation - Question 2 - Trailer and Website

FONT: The website uses the same font that was used for the captions in the trailer. There is a lot of continuity in both as The Conjuring is known to use cross media convergence effectively.

COLOUR SCHEME: The trailer of The Conjuring uses a lot of low key lighting to set the mood of horror. This horror atmosphere is also created on the website as they use a dark picture and very dark colours to design their website. The Conjuring is a very scary movie.

CHARACTERS: The protagonist in the film is The Warrens they show up a lot in the trailer as well as this The Perron family who are the victims are seen several times in the trailer and on the website  members of The Perron family are used for main images.

OUR TRAILER WIL BE HERE!!!!

FONT:Our website uses the same font as our trailer. This helps increase our use of cross media convergence as our font is recognisable in our different media.

COLOUR SCHEME: Our trailer uses a lot of low key lighting and red colour gradients which connotes blood, sex and danger. Our colour palette for our trailer consists of grey, black, red and white and that is the same colour platte that our website has. This is done so when people go on our website they are immediately aware that our film is going to be scary.

CHARACTERS: The characters that appear in our trailer also appear on our website. Some of the images on the website our similar to some of the footage in the trailer as characters are wearing the same costumes and our positioned in a way that they were in the trailer.

Evaluation - Question 1 - Storyline (Todorov Theory)

Most real media text horror films follow Todorov's theory as it is a simple structure and the resolution at the end always has the moral that evil never prevails.

Equilibrium: A family move into a new house, they are all very happy and glad they're in a bigger house as they're a very big family.

Disequilibrium: A dead spirit that once lived in the house starts to haunt them and she ends up possessing the mother. This possession makes the mother want to kill her own children.

Resolution - A husband and wife who both share the profession of being demonologist undergo an exorcism and remove the spirit out of the mother and the family end up moving out of the house.

OUR TRAILER WILL BE HERE!!

We decided to follow the theory of Todorov for our trailer as audiences are used to this structure.

Equilibrium: Three university students move into a new house whilst they're at university instead of living in student accommodation.

Disequilibrium: They wake up a dead spirit in the house and the spirit possesses the slut girl and she tries to kill her two friends.

Equilibrium: One of the girls seek help from a priest and he conducts a prayer that removes the spirit from the slut girl.

Evaluation - Question 1 - Editing - Captions

ANGELA CAPTIONS

We used this convention as it is a good way to help narrate our trailer; meaning the audience are able to see what is coming up or gain some sort of understanding of what is happening.

REAL MEDIA EXAMPLE

Most trailers use captions to explain the story and build up tension. They are also used at the end to publicise the name of the film and they are also used to show other films that the director has made.