"Honey" film review.

"HONEY" What genre of the film is the poster advertising? How do you know? What conventions are presented? Using my own knowledge of the advertisement of the film poster "Honey", the genre is conveyed to be a romantic urban comedy drama which is set in New York. The poster portrays a variety of conventions which include friendship as shown by the main star Jessica Alba (Honey) and her friend Joy Bryant standing side by side. Other conventions also includes romance and dancing, these conventions help indicate as to what the genre of the film is and perhaps gives some kind of clues to what it's about. Using the images we get from the poster the movie looks predictable, even if you are simply an adolescent who is only there to watch the main character in sexy dance wear. Who are the actors? What films have they been in before? Why were these actors chosen? On this particular poster there are five main actors whose names are mentioned Jessica Alba, Mekhi Phifer, Lil Romeo, Joy Bryant and Missy Elliot. However the main character Jessica Alba is the focal point, this is due to her success in a drama series called "Dark Angel", there is no doubt that the main star was chosen because she brings a unique vibrancy as she is dashing and desirable thanks to her curvy frame accompanied by a bright pearly white smile that can instantly change the whole perspective of the poster and the

  • Word count: 859
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Media Studies
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"How do different media communicate information and other messages to their audiences?"

"How do different media communicate information and other messages to their audiences?" Communication through the media is a continuously evolving monster. It is almost impossible to live in today's modern society, without being affected (consciously or subconsciously) by what we see or what we hear within the media. 'Media' can be defined as a means of presenting information to the public, through a variety of mediums. It can be broken down into two main categories of which are further separated into various mediums. The conventional model of 'Mass Media' is still very relevant in today's society. It is a very reliable method of communicating information and other messages to its audience. Mass media deals with the idea that society receives information from media sources in 'bulk', it assumes that the audience receives one single message simultaneously. Medium forms associated with mass media include Newspapers, Television, Radio, Film, Magazines, Books and Video's and increasingly, the Internet (although some would argue it isn't). The result of 'Mass Society' is a direct impact of 'Mass Media'. The idea based around 'Mass Society' derives from its structure. Within mass society national relations are the main focus, they are centralised. Governments in general have become more powerful as they play more influence in people's lives. Due to this, intermediate

  • Word count: 2086
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Media Studies
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"How does Alfred Hitchcock manipulate the audience to make the viewing of Psycho a frightening or worrying experience?"

Psycho Coursework Essay Charlotte Read "How does Alfred Hitchcock manipulate the audience to make the viewing of Psycho a frightening or worrying experience?" Introduction: For this essay I am going to describe, in detail, what Alfred Hitchcock did to make Psycho an innovative film, a new one that hadn't been around before. It is famous because at the time it had a huge effect on the audience, we're analysing how and why it did. In the 1950's America had a totally different disposition. There were certain boundaries for films in the past. There was never any flesh shown that was too provocative, kissing wasn't included in films. For example at the end of a big love scene between two people there was no big kiss, people would kiss on the cheek. When films were being played in multiplexes, anyone could walk in at anytime as films were on a loop, with cartoons and the news interspersed into it. Hitchcock wanted to change the course of cinematic history, so he changed the whole process of presenting, producing, making and promoting a film. This was so he could get to the fan base he wanted, so he could create a mass emotion and following. He wouldn't let anything else be shown in the cinema and everyone queuing outside would have to keep quiet about what they were to see. No one could suddenly walk in halfway through; you either saw it or you didn't. The film had

  • Word count: 1912
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Media Studies
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"How will information technology affect my life in the next 15 years?"

"How will information technology affect my life in the next 15 years?" This essay is about how information technology will affect my life in the next 15 years. Modern world is going through an 'information revolution and IT affect everyone in daily life. Its impact will be further extended in the next 15 years. Information technology will affect the method of communication. People will tend to use email, net meeting, ICQ or MSM, instead of writing letter for communication. In the next 15 year, this situation will become intensify. By using this kind of technology, I can communicate with others in a more efficient way. Information technology has become more and more important in the society of the 21st century and there are an increasing number of companies or organizations have computerized its own work practices. In the next 15 year there will be a growing demand for computer expert. That is why for education, it has to match the needs of employment and everyday life in the future. That means that there will be increasing number of I.T. programs in the future and the I.T course may become a compulsory subject in secondary schools or in university. This also means that whatever job I will take in the future, I have to got at least some basic computer knowledge. In the next 15 years, there may be increasing use of the e-books, e-articles, etc. I may not have to buy textbook

  • Word count: 617
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Media Studies
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"If real world markets can be made to resemble more closely the economists model of perfect competition, economic efficiency will improve"

"If real world markets can be made to resemble more closely the economists model of perfect competition, economic efficiency will improve" Perfect competition would exist when there are a large number of small firms all producing a homogenous product, and not one firm in the market has monopoly power to amend prices. These companies are competing against each other on the production costs and also the retail price. For an industry to be perfectly competitive then several assumptions need to be made these are that there are a very large number of buyers and sellers and none of the buyers or sellers can influence the ruling market price by their actions. All the buyers and sellers possess perfect market information and the goods they are providing are homogenous. Finally there are few barriers to entry and exit of the market. I use the term "would exist" simple because an industry performing under perfect competition is simply not feasible. There are a number of types of efficiency these include; Dynamic efficiency is concerned with how resources are allocated over a period of time, for example there would be greater efficiency if a firm distributed less profit to it's shareholders but instead invested more of the money into. Allocative efficiency occurs when resources are used to produce the goods and services that consumer wish to buy. For example a consumer wants to

  • Word count: 931
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Media Studies
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"In what ways is watching Film/TV an active process of interpretation, rather than a passive process of 'assimilating' information?"

"In what ways is watching Film/TV an active process of interpretation, rather than a passive process of 'assimilating' information?" There are many ways in which an audience of Film or Television actively interpret what they see on screen rather than simply absorbing it, we as viewers, at least to a certain degree, are active in constructing meaning rather than, so to speak, just letting it go over our heads. Fundamentally it is important to note that, no matter how strong a debate may be for an audience being passive, we are still undertaking some process of cognitive activity just to merely comprehend a TV programme or film. When we visually perceive something, an image on screen say, there is a basic cognitive process already in action, which is, that we compare what we see, to what we already know, and to what we expect. However, there are those who criticise TV and the moving image as being a passive and mundane leisure past time. For example, Frank Lloyd Wright described TV as 'chewing gum for the eyes' and Ernie Kovacs called TV 'a medium, so called because it is neither rare nor well done'. Although, Ien Ang, for example, concludes that the TV audience as a whole is stereotyped and labelled as 'couch potatoes', but they should not be, as 'the ordinary viewers' perspective is almost always ignored...' and 'living with television involves...interpretations' (Ang 1991:

  • Word count: 3113
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Media Studies
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"It's All in Your Mind": Candyman and the Myth of the Black Male Rapist

David S. Neale Lewis Gordon AA 10 August 2, 1999 "It's All in Your Mind": Candyman and the Myth of the Black Male Rapist The movie Candyman1 resuscitates the age-old myth of the black male rapist. According to Angela Davis2, the historical pretext of the black male rapist was created in order to justify the gruesome practice of lynching blacks3. As Davis explains, it became "necessary" to avenge black men's assaults on white womanhood4. In Candyman, the title character is the black rapist; he uses a hook for a hand-turned-phallus to rip white women5 apart "from their groin to their gullet"-nothing other than a rape-murder. However, given the fictitious nature of the myth, its presence in the film immediately raises questions about the validity of Helen's experiences with the legendary hook-wielding black man. As I will show, Helen may have participated in what Don Belton calls the "scapegoating of the black male body"6 in order to soothe her guilty conscience about the crimes she likely committed. Thus, by deploying the character of Helen in this manner, the film does no more than recycle harmful stereotypes about, and incite our contemporary society's fears of, black men. To explain the connection between the myth of the black male rapist and the observation of its deployment in Candyman, I first want to provide some background about it. In Women, Race & Class,

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Media Studies
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So…What's Memorable About This Walk?

So...What's Memorable About This Walk? Romance, tears, and not a well developed character in sight - what else do you expect from the director of the so called box office hit The Wedding Planner? Adam Shankman conjures up another film that targets such a narrow audience that it completely misses the sweet spot with the majority of movie-goers. A Walk To Remember may have been ignored by most film viewers, but the posters featuring Mandy Moore and Shane West lured enough preteens and early teenagers to actually make a profit. Although, put a good looking male who falls in love with a "Plain Jane" on the screen, and the girl masses will follow. This film gave the audience two narrative arcs for the price of one. It first began as a typical teenage movie where opposites attract, but then progresses into a mawkish tear jerker. Putting two narratives into a 100 minute feature length film forced Shankman to cut a few corners. By doing so, the characters were poorly developed, subplots were wrapped in unconvincing ways, and the entire film seems rushed. Even after all this, the tender faces around me still gasped on cue and shed tears when the characters did. Landon Carter (Shane West) and a bunch of his beer-drinking, blaspheming friends begin the film with an initiation rite gone terribly wrong when another young man jumps from an industrial scaffolding into a shallow river.

  • Word count: 1159
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Media Studies
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Soap Opera EastEnders is one of Britain's most successful television soap operas. First shown on BBC1 in 1985, it enjoys regular half hour primetime viewing slots

Soap Opera EastEnders is one of Britain's most successful television soap operas. First shown on BBC1 in 1985, it enjoys regular half hour primetime viewing slots, originally twice and more recently three times a week, repeated in an omnibus edition at the weekend. Within eight months of its launch it reached the number one spot in the ratings and has almost consistently remained amongst the top five programmes ever since (average viewing figures per episode are around 16 million). A brief dip in audience numbers in the Summer of 1983 prompted a rescheduling masterstroke by the then BBC1 controller, Michael Grade, in order to avoid the clash with ITV's more established soap, Emmerdale Farm. The brainchild of producer, Julia Smith, and script editor, Tony Holland, EastEnders is significant in terms of both the survival of the BBC and the history of British popular television drama. In the increasingly competitive struggle with independent television for quality of programmes and appeal to mass audiences, the BBC claimed to have found in EastEnders the answer to both a shrinking audience and criticisms of declining standards. The programme is set in Walford, a fictitious borough of London's East End, and focuses on a number of predominantly working-class, often interrelated, families living in Albert Square. The East End of London was regarded as the ideal location for an

  • Word count: 1089
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Media Studies
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Television now stands in the foot prints of where film was once stranded. This statement is referring to television being viewed as an art.

Television now stands in the foot prints of where film was once stranded. This statement is referring to television being viewed as an art. Over the last few decades film studies within universities have elevated film to that of an art. Television studies seem to be few and far between. So where does television stand in terms of art and what needs to happen to elevate its status and acceptance within the art community. Television today is produced much like film during the major studio hay day. When something works (ex. Reality TV) they run with it until it runs dry. This is naturally part of the TV enterprise because viewers are needed to keep advertisers interested, and advertising is needed to keep the networks financially happy. Old Hollywood's answer to the studio was the auteur. This was a filmmaker who was able to work within the heavy constraints of the studio and still add his/her artistic touch. In television today you have a handful of shows that cross this boundary (ex. X-Files etc.) and overcome the constraints of a national broadcast. Another positive for TV is networks such as HBO which have done away with constraints altogether. Since HBO has its own in house productions and doesn't rely on advertising (viewers pay to have access to it) it gives its own productions much more time to develop into there potential. This is in sharp contrast to that of major

  • Word count: 842
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Media Studies
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