At first look, The King’s Speech is seemingly as stereotypical to the period drama genre as they come. With cliché costumes and the typical pre-war ambience, it’s hard to believe that the 2010 film will be anything but. However, if you peer past the familiarly ostentatious ways, this Tom Hooper film is much more than first expected. The true-life drama telling the tale of King George VI’s rise to power and struggle against a confidence-smashing stammer provides the perfect balance of witty comedy and powerful drama. With truly memorable performances from a genius cast, The King’s Speech leaves its audience utterly breathless.

After the death of King George V, the unsure Albert (Firth), burdened by a horrific stammer, is forced to take the throne when his older brother abdicates. Being deemed an unfit king, Bertie’s wife (Carter) seeks the assistance of an unlikely source – Australian failed actor-turned-speech therapist Lionel Logue (Rush). He insists that the otherwise snobbish way in which the monarch wishes to be spoken to must be dispensed, and in order for his therapy to be a success they must talk man to man, without the usual royal protocol. And so Logue proceeds to treat Albert as he would any other. He refers to the King as ‘Bertie’ in the same way his wife and close friends do, and never holds back when speaking his mind to said monarch. Lionel sets Bertie an unusual sequence of tasks in order to prevent future stuttering, following a mouthful of marbles prescribed by a doctor which is particularly unsuccessful. After an emotionally epic journey, including a wonderfully executed tourettes-like outburst in which Bertie cries out a string of childishly amusing swear words, Lionel’s hard work pays off and it comes to the public’s attention that the King is, in fact, utterly worthy.

As his character reluctantly prepares to take the throne, Colin Firth portrays an awe-inspiring performance of Bertie, King George VI. With the difficult task of perfecting a false stammer, it’s no wonder Firth is Oscar-nominated for Best Male Actor. His compelling performance forces the audience to fall deep into the film, losing all sense of surroundings.

And it isn’t just Firth who gives a mind-blowing performance. The distinctly memorable portrayal of the Queen Mother by the versatile Helena Bonham-Carter comes as quite a shock to many of her fans. Although her performance seems overlooked and her presence underused, Carter takes a drastic leap back into the world of the costume drama where she began her career in popular Merchant-Ivory films such as A Room With a View (1985) and Lady Jane (1986). After a long and glorious reign in the wacky world of long-term boyfriend Tim Burton, her return to the period drama is unexpected, yet her ability to embrace such roles is astounding and graciously accepted.

However, not every performance is award-worthy. Pearce’s portrayal of King George VI’s brother whom abdicates the longingly sought-after throne lacks passion and depth. The performance is weak in comparison to those of Carter, Firth and Rush and his appearance is lacking in believability. The cinematography leaves little to the imagination, also, as in parts it’s a little lack-lustre, however, some talented framing and shot composition give volume and depth to the already brilliant drama.

So what is it that really captivates the audience and makes the UK Film Council film award-worthy? Perhaps it’s the powerful performances, or the witty extras? Or maybe it’s the ingeniously placed comedy boosts that the audience really fall for? Whatever the answer, one thing is for certain; The King’s Speech is definitely not one to be missed.

http://kimberleyjournomedia.tumblr.com/

The Toyota campervan, which belonged to the unsuspecting patient in clinic, was parked in the hospital’s main car park when it burst into flames.

Martin Dean, part of the ULH Trust’s Security team, said, ‘The fire brigade got here before we eve got the call to go. They were sat there waiting for us to arrive so they could gain access’.

The two pumps called to the scene managed to put out the fire, which was caused by an electrical fault, and no injuries were sustained.

Well it’s good to know fire service was called to something other than burnt toast for a change!

Another thing that has inspired me in my writing is the genious writer Elizabeth Gilbert. All it took was one book for me to become immensely inspired and filled with new dreams and a whole lot of imagination. That book is called ‘Eat, Pray, Love’. The bestseller is an inspirational read and has recently been turned into a film. The determination and passion towards writing has never been stronger than it is at the current moment, and I am currently in the process of beginning my own novel, due to the inspiration gained from Elizabeth Gilbert’s amazing talent.

Teenagers have been referred to as such since around the 1950s, in which they became more independent and started to become influenced by TV and music, in particular the Rock ‘n’ Roll scene and such bands as The Beatles with their rebellious attitude towards authority. Another reason which is often tied-in to the behaviour of adolescents is puberty. Many believe that as puberty creates changes for the body, the teenager feels that their personality’s and attitude towards certain things must also change. Taking all of this into consideration, however, I feel that the unfair way in which the media represents young people is most to blame for their attitude to life. Without the headlines and descriptive words such as ‘yobbos’ and ‘thugs’, teenagers would not fear themselves and therefore possibly wouldn’t feel the need to carry knives and other weapons. Let it be sufficient to say that I am by no means justifying the behaviour some teenagers, such as those involved in the Jamie Bulger case, who are, in my opinion, pure evil. However, I would find it hard to agree that the behaviour of all teenagers carrying knives and getting in trouble with others their age are by any means ‘evil’ or ‘sick’. Many are just misrepresented and living up to the portrayal of the judgemental media.

Films also play a role in the misrepresentation of teenagers. Such films as Kidulthood and Adulthood deal with issues such as bullying and rebellious behaviour, as does the 2005 Rian Johnson neo-noir film, Brick. Brick tells the story of a teenage boy who gains access into a crime circle in order to find out why his ex-girlfriend disappeared. The film shows a high use of dugs, again giving a bad name to teenagers.

The internet is often blamed for the high amount of teenage suicides taking place over recent years, particularly the painfully memorable Bridgend suicides. Over one year, seven young people took their own lives, and many think that social networking sites such as Bebo are to blame. Representation of teenagers has become so appalling over recent years that links between the media’s portrayal of teenagers and the rise in suicides could be reasonably just.

With such representations being made not only in newspaper headlines but in films and over the internet also, it is no wonder that the teenage population has become scared of itself.

I’ve created this advert which I have called ‘The Three Faces of  Youth;  The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’. I’ve portrayed a young male dressed as a stereotypical thug in three situations. The good – smiling and acting as any young teenager might. The clothes are stereotypical of a thug but clothes don’t always represent personality. The teenager is with his young sister, showing that he has a good, caring side. The bad – looking round whilst holding a knife. This is meant as a way of showing what I wrote about above – teenagers being scared and using a knife as a way of protecting themselves. The ugly – the teenager is a true thug, showing his evil colours when aiming the knife at a victim.

Individual assignment: Critical responseKim HallThe brief for our 72-hour challenge was to create a short media object based on the theme of ‘the thing we have always wanted to make’. We had the choice of making either a video, which was limited to three minutes, a journalistic article, a radio programme which was also limited to three minutes, or an advert. The final product was expected to be seen out in ‘the real world’ and we had to consider the key concepts carefully in order for it to work. We chose to create an advert especially for the victims of violence and were given a list of rules to adhere to. The genre of our media text is difficult to pin-point. It has features of a thriller and, in some ways, a biopic. Genre is a term for categorising media texts such as film and radio. It is important for producers to put a genre to their work as it helps the audience to know what to expect, and in some cases, it helps them to choose a particular media text to consume. We have looked at many key concepts over this term which I am going to use to critically analyse the short advertisement that we made for the 72-hour challenge. One of the many key concepts we have looked at is audience. When a production company is making a text, one of the first questions they ask themselves is ‘does it have an audience?’ For our product, we decided that the audience would be anybody who is being mentally or physically abused, particularly those who are victims of domestic violence. Segmentation is the process of categorising a group of people. This can be done either demographically, geographically or psychographically. Geographic variables include region, size and density of the area and climate, whilst demographic variables include age, gender, family size, generation, education and occupation. Psychographic variables are based on the ‘inner qualities’ of an individual, for example, personality, lifestyle, values, interests, opinions and so on. I believe that you can segment the audience for this advertisement using these ideas very well. Demographically, the audience can be segmented, as the majority of domestic violence victims, according to Walby and Allen (2004), are females. Statistics shows that ‘45% of women and 26% of men have experienced at least one incident of inter-personal violence in their lifetimes’ (Walby and Allen, 2004, Domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking: Findings from the British Crime Survey). However, almost 90% of victims of ongoing domestic or sexual abuse are women. Therefore, the demographically segmented audience would specifically include females. Coleman stated that abuse from partners or ex-partners can begin from as early as the age of 16. This therefore means that, again, demographically segmented, the audience would include females from the age of 16. I do not believe that the advert can be segmented by geographic variables, as domestic violence can occur in any region of any size or density and within any climate.  JICNARS (Joint Industry Committee for National Readerships Surveys) uses a format of A, B, C1, C2, D and E to categorise audiences. I believe that the JICNARS scale does not apply to our advertisement as anybody of any social standing or profession could be abused, and our media product is not aimed at anybody from any particular social standing.
Narrative theories are a very important part of media practice as we, as an audience, need a structured narrative in order understand what is happening within the text. Almost all films and media objects follow Todorov’s narrative theory of equilibrium and disequilibrium. The theory states that the environment begins with a state of equilibrium, where everything is as it should be. This is followed by a disruption or disequilibrium and then a new, better equilibrium occurs. I believe that our advert is no different and it, too, follows this theory and relates to Todorov’s narrative structure theory in quite an obvious way. At the beginning of the advertisement, the lady is happily getting the post and tidying the house, therefore in a state of perfect equilibrium. The disequilibrium arrives when she hears her boyfriend/husband coming home and opening the door. As there isn’t exactly a ‘new, better’ equilibrium within our advert, the message at the end takes that role, as it is sending out the message that there is help for women who are in violent relationships and all other victims of domestic violence, therefore the new equilibrium. Propp’s character types are also a narrative theory and are important when analysing media texts as they, too, create a structure to help understand the text. These character types apply to our product, however, without eight characters, only the two characters within the advert apply to the theory. The woman in the advert is the princess – innocent and naive. The man, who is never seen in the advertisement but is the basis of the woman’s fear, takes the roll of the villain. Representation is the process by which the media present to us the ‘real world’. As we had to make our product understandable in ‘the real world’, I think that representation is a key idea when analysing our advert. Representation is extremely important as a key concept as ‘in the modern world the majority of people gain their information and knowledge about the world through mass media texts’ (Long and Wall, 2009). This means, therefore, that how the media makes things seem to the audience has a lasting effect and without media texts such as TV, radio and newspapers we would not know what was going on in the world as well as we do. One theory that relates to this is the hypodermic needle theory. According to Long and Wall, this suggests that ‘media messages were thought to act like injections of a behaviour changing serum into our bodies’. In other words, institutions, such as Rupert Murdoch and the BBC, for example, make their audiences believe what they want them to believe as they have the power to do so. By writing about certain things or giving certain views to situations, for example, The Sun – run by Murdoch – is described as ‘right wing’ and supports the Labour party. Therefore, readers of The Sun are likely to get a biased view of any story based around politics; henceforth ‘injecting’ its audience’s minds with thoughts.By using certain music and lighting, as well as making the attacker invisible in our advert, I believe that we have represented domestic violence in a negative way and the help for it in a positive way. Similarly to the hypodermic needle idea, we have injected the message of the advert into the audience’s minds by having no diagetic sound and showing the woman’s fear throughout. Laura Mulvey created the representational theory of ‘the male gaze’ in which she said that women were placed on the screen to be watched. This links to scopophilia – the pleasure of looking at others bodies, particularly in a sexual way, which was also created by Mulvey. The male gaze is the theory that all women are turned into objects for men’s viewing pleasure. This links also to Linda Williams’ theory that ‘women figured on the screen have functions as embodiments of fear, pleasure and pain’. These pleasures include convulsions or spasms (porn), the screams of fear (horror) and sobs of anguish (melodrama). Linda Williams is an American film studies professor and is well known for studying pornography.  I do not think that Laura Mulvey’s ‘male gaze’ theory applies to our media product, as the woman in our advertisement has not been placed there to be watched by men, but to send a message to other women. Within our short advertisement, it is quite easy to recognise the ‘sobs of anguish’ and ‘screams of fear’, making Linda Williams’ theory fit our media product well.  To sum up, our 72-hour challenge text incorporates many of the key concepts we have studied over the term, including audience, institutions, genre, narrative and representations.
Walby and Allen, 2004, Domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking: Findings from the British Crime SurveyLong and Wall, 2009, Media Studies; Texts, Production and ContextColeman et al. 2007www.womensaid.org.uk , domestic violence statisticsLinda Williams, 1991, Film Bodies; Gender, Genre and Excess

The storyline partially resembles that of 2002 Ying Xiong (Hero) staring Jet Li, Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung Chiu Wai. Sun Wen, a member of the Tongmenghui, is set to arrive in Hong Kong to discuss a revolution to overthrow the corrupt Qing Dynasty. And when the Empress sends a group of assassins to kill Sun, a rival group of revolutionaries set out to protect Sun Wen with the help of businessman Li Yutang.

The cinematography throughout the film is intriguing, however I feel it lacks any real passion as the camera angles are unimaginative, including many close-ups and high angles, and the lighting is nothing beyond ordinary.

Although I was expecting much more action in true East Asian action-film style, I did enjoy the thought-evoking storyline and drama that comes throughout the film and, I feel, is on top form. The plot may leave a lot to be desired but it is something about the simple storyline that pleases the audience in unexpected ways.

I may not recommend the film for it’s incredible action and desirable cinematography, however, the film is worth a watch if you’re a fan of the typical East Asian action drama.

3 stars.

The first artefact is a radio advertisement, for which we had to design a product and create a USP. For me, ideas for this task came easily. I researched some old advertisements from radio and looked at the techniques and styles. I most enjoyed the cheesy, ‘lame’ adverts which were designed to make the audience laugh. I therefore suggested to the group that we use this technique and try to create our very own cheesy advert. Having to create a product could have been a lot harder than it was, as we decided that as the theme for our advert was cheese, that’s exactly what our product should be! I felt that this was by far our best product and I also enjoyed creating this the most, as it’s something I am very interested in, in comparison to the other artefacts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnDif0NdrJk&feature=player_embedded

The next artefact is the Global Care Trailer. For this task we had to cut footage from a 60minute roll we were given to create our own advertisement for the charity. We were also allowed to add our own footage, however, we felt that doing this would make the trailer/advertisement feel less real. We were given the task to create the trailer in a film trailer manner, yet advertise the charity which I felt was quite unusual. I think this artefact turned out okay but could have been a lot better if we’d had more time in which to make it and if we’d had the right lessons for learning how to use the editing equipment, which we felt we could not use to it’s full potential.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wHn-C5_juU&feature=player_embedded

Artefact three was the music video. This is probably my least favourite artefact as I felt there was a lot more we could have done to make the final product better. For this task, we had to chose a poem from some that we were given and add music and images to accompany a voice-over reading the poem. We used the poem ‘Because I Could Not Stop For Death’ by Emily Dickinson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6J3rrjLqoY&feature=player_embedded

The final artefact is the Silent Film. I feel that this works really well. However, I feel that with more professional actors to do the acting, the film would have looked a lot better. Given the time we had and the people we had to work with, I feel that we did really well in this task. We were given the task to make a silent film incorparating the simple brief; a woman kills a man and leaves the scene quickly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bSzsV2iu2Q&feature=player_embedded

I learnt that Trevor is very laid-back and has a great sense of humour of this Coventry Conversation, as he joked about the general election and spoke about his work involving that. He made it very clear which party he supported from the beginning by his very clear jokes and even showed a YouTube video mocking the Conservative party. I really enjoyed this as I felt that it showed that he’s just an ordinary member of the public like myself making my dreams seem much more achievable, the way that he has achieved so much in his career in the media.  He also showed some adverts which he created for the general election with The Independent – including a world exclusive -, however, I could not find any of the examples to link to this blog.

Another part of Trevor’s conversation which inspired me and made me feel that my goals can be reached is when he spoke about how the current generation are creative and will bring about a new kind of media, leaving the mundane media behind. This also links back to his passion for one of those three big ideas he spoke of at the beginning of the conversation.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Trevor Beattie’s Coventry Conversation and feel very inspired by many of the things he spoke about, especially our current generation and our creative minds.