Question 1 (5 marks): Analyse how mise-en-scene is used in the extract to create meaning. Refer to at least two examples from the extract in your answer.

In this extract, mise-en-scene is used through the use of outfits to create meaning. The criminals are all dressed in similar outfits: baggy trousers and t-shirts that are generally dirty. A lot of these characters also have big tattoos and un-brushed hair. These outfits and appearances are stereo typically associated with criminals, which therefore allows the audience to easily categorise them as the 'baddies' of the scene. This is further emphasised through the contrast in outfits of the police from the criminals: they wear suits and matching uniforms that are neat, smart and polished. Their uniformed, organised appearance connotes to the audience their authority and power. Therefore, when we see the police raid the house, the audience are easily able to understand that the men inside are bad and criminally acting by not listening to the police.

Another use of mise-en-scene within the extract is lighting. Outside of the house, it is normal daylight. However, this contrasts with the inside of the house, which is a dark, desaturated light and a lot harder to see. The sudden loss of light within the house, connotes a serious situation as well as danger - because darkness is usually associated with evil. Therefore, through the darkening of the lighting, the audience understand the situation has become more serious and dangerous.

Observer Q9

There is a dominance of colourful promotional material on the cover, for example -'free supplement inside' -which shows the social context of consumerism. People not only want but expect and accept self-promotion in media products. The Observer clearly knows this and happily promotes themselves on this tweet. There is also a dominance of photographs on the tweet, which is highlighted by the saturated colour and lack of text. This shows that, due to what the readers want, traditional broadsheet newspapers have slowly adapted to become more like tabloids.

There are also ethnically diverse representations on the front page, representing the diversity of modern Britain as well as the diversity of the readers of the Observer - this reflects the social and cultural contexts. In addition to diversity, there is also a diverse range of female representations. For example it has an image of  a woman who is following a stereotypical role of females: as a cook - but there is also another woman who is represented as fit and sporty. These representations contrast each other and show the social context of the time - how feminism has had a big impact on society.

The lead story is on Brexit, which shows the political context of the time - it shows that Brexit has the dominance when it comes to political debate in England. The use of big text, represents its importance within the newspaper and also suggests that it is serious and important. Many of the Observer readers are middle class and follow the left side of the political scale, therefore the Brexit article would be of a lot of interest to the audience - showing the importance of politics within our society.

Additionally, the fact that this article is in the form of a tweet gives the chance for a lot of interactivity - in the form of: retweets, likes and comments. This shows a social context in which audiences now expect to have a participatory relationship with media forms.

exam practice: CLASH

CLASH uses media language such as colour to represent their musicians. In a lot of Clash magazines the colour are desaturated or very plain. This suggests to the reader that the musicians are serious and are also taken seriously by Clash. It may also connote the idea that the music they play is dark or that the musicians have a hard life. The usual use of a black background also connotes sophistication and elegance - these musicians aren't seen as a joke.

Often the main splash image is used to support these ideas. In a lot of Clash magazines the main splash is blurred or slightly hidden. The main splash never usually looks directly at the camera and  the eyes of the musician are obscured. This suggests that clash sees musicians above everyone else -they are stars and we don't see their eyes because we can't understand the hardships that musicians go to get their fame, therefore they are hidden/blurred from the rest of us. The front cover of most clash magazines are usually dominated by the musician. Unlike other magazines, clash tends to only have one image on the front. This emphasises the importance of that particular musician within the magazine and draws the readers attention straight to them.

The layouts is also very plain, with barely any coverlines or other writing on the front. Clash has the masthead in a sans-serif font and capitalisation is used, which connotes seriousness and authenticity. Having only one image and barely any coverlines once again emphasises the musician as well as the masthead, to the readers. When there are coverlines being used, they are often wonky or toppling over. This highlights the originality of the magazine and makes them stand out - showing that their musicians are different from the rest.

Analyse the representations found in the UK television ad break for The Lego Movie. [10]

The original adverts from this advert break were not made in mind with the idea of lego, however Warner Bros decided to convert them to lego so as to advertise for their upcoming movie: the Lego Movie.

Although all of the brands being advertised are more for an adult audience, they are made family friendly through the use of very bright colours and the association that lego has with children - this encourages many ages to watch the movie as it is by a well-known universal brand which is embracing a child-friendly nature. All ages are also encouraged to watch it because adults grew up using lego and want a flashback of their childhood and children are currently obsessed with the brand created in 1932.

The lego movie advert break also encourages people to watch it through the humour it promises. It is humorous because it personifies lego bricks as human characters carrying out human activities in a lego world - which is essentially just like the movie. It takes serious moments, such as a PSA from the British heart society telling about what to do when someone is having a heart attack, and makes light of the situation. This shows it has aspects of real life promotes the lego movie in a way that suggests it has serious situations but is also going to be fun. The advert break also uses well-known brands such as Premier Inn and Confused.com to promise that the movie is high-quality - these brands wouldn't have wanted their adverts to be made out of lego unless the movie was going to be amazing. This would encourage people seeing the lego movie advert break to watch the actually movie.

Emmett is used as a good model for the younger audience. He has a simple yet vulnerable personality, however he isn't the typical masculine figure often presented today. Although he is presented at first as just a normal person trying to fit in, he ends up saving the day. Young children will understand from him, that no matter what you're like or how you speak or what opinions you have, you are still special in some way. As this is a message many parents try and give to their children, adults will encourage their children to watch the movie.

Contrastingly, the female Wyldstyle is strong and heroic, embracing the strong power of feminism. She challenges female stereotypes through many moments in the movie, for example building a motorbike and riding it across the lego city. She empowers female audiences as she is the one being a hero, rather than typically a male. This makes the movie also suitable for females. 

HOW DOES THE AVENGERS CHALLENGE TRADITIONAL REPRESENTATIONS OF GENDER TO REACH A 1960's AUDIENCE?

In the Avengers, traditional gender views of the time were challenged to give a message to the 1960 audience: women are capable of the same things as men. Emma Peel acts as a strong female lead, which was unusual during this time - women generally acted as helpless wives who needed to be saved by the man. However, it is made clear from the first episode that Emma Peel is capable enough of looking after herself. When Steed enters her house she is clearly practising fencing - which was generally seen as a masculine sport - and challenges Steed to a fight. This shows she's not afraid of standing up to a man and is able to fight back. This was incredibly unusual for a tv programme in the 1960's because women were never seen standing up to men and acting as their equals. However, the views of these times aren't completely challenged here. Although Emma Peel challenges Steed to a fight, in the end, Steed wins because he is ultimately the male - therefore he is seen as the stronger one of the time and he wins.

Emma peel also challenges stereotypes because she is seen as very intelligent and works on her own to solve cases. This shows that men don't always hold all of the power. She also answers Steed back without a lot of warmth sometimes. For example, when Steed asks for coffee, peel doesn't follow the usual stereotype and run and get one for him, rather tells him where the coffee is and leaves him to get it. This shows she believes she's equal to Steed and will not grovel for him just because she's a woman. This is a real challenge to the stereotype of this time, where women were expected to look after the man. The Avengers uses Peel in this way to show women that they weren't insignificant to the man.

However, following the stereotypes of the 1960's, Emma Peel is often dressed in very tight outfits which tend to sexualise her. Additionally, whilst Steed and Peel were fencing, Steed slaps Peel's bottom as she walks away, which would nowadays be seen as completely wrong. This action once again sexulaises Emma Peel. This shows that, although the Avengers challenges traditional views of gender in the 1960's to start another opinion on women, it also follows some stereotypes of women - conforming to some views in the 1960's.

Analyse the representation of Jamaican Reggae music and musicians such as Bob Marley in this MOJO front cover. (5 marks)

In this magazine extract, MOJO uses a plain white with bright accent colours of red, yellow and green to connote a sense of fun and light-heartedness. This is further suggested by the main splash - Bob Marley - who is large, smiling and in a colourful shirt. This suggests that MOJO see's their musicians as fun. However, this is different from the stereotypical MOJO magazine as this is usually in monochrome colours of a young, white male. Therefore, this new style MOJO have presented suggest they see Jamaican Reggae as more fun and less serious than their usual genres. Bob Marley's importance is also shown as he covers the title 'MOJO' suggesting he is the key to this magazine.

This idea is further reinforced by the editor who puts the word 'Marley' in red, yellow and green - making it the most colourful and biggest word on the cover. This again connotes the idea of Bob Marley being a fun yet important figure in the world of Jamaican Reggae as well as within MOJO. Jamaican Reggae is also highlighted as hardcore and serious with words such as 'Reggae Revolution' which connote the sense of overpowering riots - suggesting Jamaican Reggae is different but amazing. 

Observer online: messages and values Q9

1.  The major use of newspapers is to offer a sense of knowing
what is going on in the world.The Observer knows that its readers are serious and interested in international affairs. This is evident in hard news articles about... politics in other countries as well as our own. For example the article 'US news/ Trump vents fury over Russia stories and again threatens national emergency'. shows that the Observer believes its readers wants to know about international, hard news affairs. 
2. The Observer meets its audience's need for a range of cultural, sporting and artistic news. It provides these with...articles such as 'Music/ 2019 Brit award nominations topped by Anne-Marie and Dua Lipa'.
3. The Observer does not shy away from 'difficult' issues that could make uncomfortable reading, such as...'Politics/ Labour set to call vote to topple Theresa May's government'.
4.  The Observer has sections which are designed to appeal to
different types of readers.The Observer reflects the diversity of its readership in articles on...other races and religions. An article which reflects this is 'Saudi teen/ Rahaf al- Qunun lands in Toronto after long journey to safety'.
5.  Newspaper readership can still be used as a symbol of one’s

social identity. The term ‘Guardian reader’ connotes a certain

type of social attitude and The Observer  similarly reinforces

a set of social and political attitudes, and thus identity, in its

representations. For example, Observer  readers like to think

of themselves as open-minded and this is reflected in the

Observer’s practice of allowing both sides of an argument

equally to be put when the newspaper is clearly on one side

of this argument. There is an example of this in....the article 'Brexit/ surprise boost for Bulgarian resorts'.

5.  The entertainment function of newspapers may take the

form of humour.  It may take the form of diversion into

a celebrity world of ‘glamour’. It may take the form of human

interest stories in which readers are invited to sympathise with

the subjects of the article. Newspapers further offer games,

puzzles, crosswords and the like. At the higher end, sections

such as the New Review in the Observer may offer the pleasure

of extremely well-written think pieces and literature reviews. An example of this is.... 'Schools/ sleep-deprived pupils need an extra hour in bed'