Byzantium Trailer

The Byzantium trailer fits into some of the conventions surrounding vampires as it maintains similar imagery to what we would imagine in a vampire film. For example throughout the trailer the main colour scheme is black and red, and these are the colours generally associated with this genre. In one scene, the mother bathes in blood and blood is an image associated with vampires due to them sucking blood from peoples' necks and being generally violent. Another scene involves one of the characters being surrounded by bats which is one of the main images that we consider to be associated with vampires. The film does challenge certain conventions but in terms of imagery they use most of the main images. One change which they do make in the film is the way the vampires feed on their prey. The women in the film, rather than having fangs, both have long, pointed nails which they use as a way of cutting the necks of their prey and they feed with their hands rather than sucking the blood from their neck. Despite this being a subtle detail in the trailer this challenges one of the main conventions associated with vampires and also makes the film seem more female based as long nails are linked to women more than men.

Light and darkness is a main theme in the trailer and these both challenge and fit into conventions. At the very start of the trailer, the girl and her mother are walking through a field in the day time. Although the weather is musky they are surviving in daylight, something that stereotypical vampires can't do. The daughter goes to school with humans meaning she would have to be at school during the day and she can do this without any negative effects, so this convention is challenged. Despite this darkness is a main theme used throughout the trailer as they have ensured the colours are generally dull.

The location of this film has aspects of fitting into the conventions but it also goes against them. There are multiple settings in the trailer such as a beach, city and a cave, which wouldn't usually be considered as places suited for vampires. The cave fits some conventions as caves are isolated places and aren't lived in by humans so the mysterious or lonely feel of them ties in  with the settings that vampires usually live in. Vampires would generally be considered to live somewhere historical like a castle, or an isolated place like forests or dungeons so caves are similar to these but less likely to be associated with vampires. The beach is an unusual setting as it is a very open place and would generally be considered a positive setting due to them being related to holidays and sun. The beach in this film looks duskier and more isolated which ties in with the connotations of vampire settings, but as a general place it is considered unusual for vampires to stay there. Cities are urban so they are usually busy and this is an unlikely place for vampires to live.

Women are the dominant gender in this trailer which goes against conventions as when people think of vampires they think of males more than females. In the film the mother is fighting to be accepted into the group of male vampires and one states that they are a brotherhood and there are no women there. The film challenges the idea that women are the inferior gender but also fits some gender stereotypes as the mother is very sexualised. While her daughter wears baggy clothes and tries to cover up, the mother is shown to be dressed in tighter and more revealing clothes. She also acts seductively around male prey which suggests she uses her sexual appeal to hunt her prey. Her clothes are fairly aristocratic but are still revealing so she has the historical look that vampires have without losing her sexualised look. Themes of desire run throughout the film as the scenes in the trailer suggest the mother gets pleasure from feasting and the sexualised nature of the women highlight this theme.

Another theme that is generally considered to be seen in vampire films is the idea of mystery and secrets. This theme is used as the daughter is shown writing about her mother then throwing the pages into the wind so as to stop people reading them.

Key Concepts

Communication - The way different information is shared either verbally or non-verbally

Culture - Certain ways of life in different places or classes

Context - The situation behind communication, how it will be read, the audience, purpose etc

Representation - 

Value - The importance of something

Identity - How we are/how we represent ourselves

Power - How much influence somebody has over others

Code - A practice or rule that is created by a culture

Nick Griffin Clip

This video is set in a conventionally British Looking home and the colours he is wearing are representative of Britain due to them being red, blue and white. The arbitrary logo in the corner of the screen is decorated with the colours of the british flag also which suggests this video is centered around British pride. These colours are a symbol as our culture has given them connotations of British pride but to people not part of this culture they may not have any hidden meaning. Nick Griffin may have negative views towards him due to him being part of the BNP and this political party is known for attempting to stop immigration for good. hence the running theme of British pride. Despite a lot of people viewing this British pride as a hate for other countries, he may be trying to show his audience how important British culture is. Cooking is a cultural practice in most places but he is trying to suggest that Britain is the proudest country when it comes to cooking as he is using all British ingredients and placing constant emphasis on the fact that everything comes from Britain.

Barbie Image Analysis

The sender of this message is a group on facebook named “Beautiful and Bald Barbie”. Not much information is given about the sender but the name suggests this group is aiming to raise awareness of the fact that people suffering from certain illnesses which may result in hair loss should still be considered beautiful.

The powerful message is shown through a central image which is the main focus of this poster, and a few bits of text to support the picture and make it clear what the intended message is. The words “bald” and “beautiful” are used frequently in the text and this suggests the main message is that girls can still be beautiful despite being bald. It states it is for “girls coping with hair loss” due to various illnesses and this is supported by the main image as the picture doesn’t fit into conventions associated with the barbies usually seen in shops. It breaks from the norm as Barbie is usually considered to be beautiful because of her long hair and ‘perfect’ figure, but the figure is hidden here and all of the main focus is placed on her head, where she has lost her hair. Barbie is a conventionally beautiful doll and well-known by everyone so that is likely to be the reason that this particular brand of doll is used. Negative opinions about the social norm of beauty in our culture is represented in this text as they are breaking away from conventions and producing a doll which would not normally be shown in media. This gives a suggestion that the sender believes norms of beauty are giving society negative views towards people who don’t fit into these norms and this should be changed by allowing everyone to see that bald is still beautiful.

The main audience is people who have joined the facebook page but it is likely to be seen by a large audience due to people sharing it over the internet. It was created to make people think so it would most likely be shared around to others to ensure that it creates an impression. The implied audience is girls as the colour theme is pink and yellow which are stereotypical girl colours. A Barbie is used as the main theme which is generally considered a girls toy and the word “beautiful” is also stereotypically associated with females. It can be assumed that this is more aimed at younger people to boost their self-esteem as media generally doesn’t show cancer patients in magazines/TV shows about beauty. This may make them feel bad about themselves as they may think they don’t fit into society’s norms and body image is usually a more important problem for girls and teenagers.

Semiotic Approach:

The Barbie picture is an index as although it’s clear that the picture is a Barbie it has connotations like unconventional beauty surrounding it and it has a deeper meaning due to it being placed there to provoke a response. The yellow ribbon is a symbol which a lot of people know is associated with cancer, but may be unrecognisable to people who have never come across this image before. It is arbitrary to some due to it not having any meaning just by itself. Our culture has attached meaning to it over time and we now place value in it because it shows support for people trying to overcome cancer.

Question 2 Essay

I'm exploring the statement that our self concept relies heavily on the feedback we receive from others. self-concept is a combination of the way we feel about and see ourselves, and a big part of boosting our self-concept is getting compliments from others. For example, if somebody changed their hairstyle and it received compliments from friends they would feel confident about themselves, whereas if it got negative feedback the person would most likely regret the decision depending on how high their self concept already is. if we receive negative feedback for showing our core self, the gap between our core and public self will increase and there is more chance we will adapt our public self to make us more appealing to others.

Dimbleby and Burton have a theory that we rely on the actions of, compare ourselves to, and identify with others. This ties in with the statement as we value other people highly and the reactions we receive from others can create a self-fulfilling prophecy. A self-fulfilling prophecy occurs when we are told something so much that we start to believe it and act it out. When this happens it means other people have influenced the way we act and this shows that we rely heavily on other people's opinions. As well as this, Cooley's Looking Glass Theory (1992) states that other people validate our behaviour and how we feel about ourselves depends entirely on the reactions of others. This is a similar theory to Dimbleby and Burton as both of theories support the idea that the opinions of others are important to us. A good example of this is that teenagers generally tend to dress similarly to the way their friends dress or copy popular styles and this suggests that they are doing this to fit in and be liked, rather than because they just like the style.

The Johari window is a model of identity, and shows the different versions of ourself and who sees them. There are 4 sections: open, blind, hidden and unknown, and these are all either known or unknown by us and others. Our open self is seen by everybody and our hidden self is aspects of our personality that we hide from others. This means we change the way we are depending on who we're with as we all have things that we want to keep private and we want to show ourselves in a good light when with others so we only reveal certain parts of our personality. For example, I change the way I act with different people as I want people to like me and accept me into their groups. This theory is good evidence that we rely on others opinions as we make changes to our identity to gain acceptance.

Another theory which supports this idea is the dissonance theory. It states that we have to try and protect ourselves from the opinions of others so we don't damage our self-concept. This is direct evidence that people affect what we think about ourselves. We disclose different amounts of information to different people and adapt the things we say in order to get approval from them. When I talk to people who are interested in pop music I would discuss the pop music I liked as I know it will get good feedback, whereas if I was talking to someone who liked rock music I would disclose different information and only discuss the rock music I liked.

When we receive negative feedback it affects our self-concept so we adopt different methods to prevent this. These are called "self-maintenance strategies" and these were discovered by Gergen and Gergen. We use methods such as commenting on our appearance in order to provoke a positive response and changing our behaviour to conform to the norms of society. This shows that we highly value what others think of us and will do certain actions to fit in with groups and be valued.

Body Modifications

Body modification is all to do with altering our bodies to get closer to reaching our ideal self. People of all ages have an idea of what they aspire to be and what their ideal self looks like, meaning that we all go through various procedures to reach our goal of being our version of 'perfect'. It is especially important to teenagers and young adults as this seems to be the time when most people get a clear idea of who they want to be and what they are willing to go through. I think with younger people body modifications (such as makeup for girls) are a way for them to try and be in control of ourselves. This is because at a young age we abide by our parents beliefs so once we have reached the age where we develop our own we want to break away from our parents and show independence. Each person has their own ideologies but as teenagers there are usually more generalised groups that we want to fit in to and theses all have specific styles. There are aspects of independence associated with body modifications as well as aspects of fitting in and being accepted.
I think a lot of teenagers modify their bodies for themselves to raise their self-esteem and make them feel more confident within themselves, but the ideal self they have created usually stems from our subconscious need to fit in with others. I personally tell myself the way my style is all for personal reasons and I'm doing it for myself not others, but there is also an aspect of society giving me ideas about how 'perfect' women should be which influences my choices subconsciously. I take a lot of my inspiration about how I want to look from people around me and the opinions of my peers rather than media. For me personally, I value my figure as one of the things that I want to become 'perfect' so working on reaching my ideal body is one my more important forms of body modification.
For others piercings and tattoos are a more obvious form of body modification. It is generally suggested, especially by older people, that people only get these as a sign of rebellion but I think it is more personal to each person rather than a way of rebelling. Teenagers can form groups because of these modifications as there are some subcultures that are more likely to get tattoos or piercings, but nowadays they're more popular with everybody so I think it is a personal decision. I personally would like to get tattoos as they are a way of representing different aspects of myself and showing off my identity, but someone like my mum hates them and doesn't see the reason people would get them so I think it all comes down to personal choice. I don't want to get tattoos to rebel against my mum's beliefs so the idea that they're all for rebellion is wrong in my opinion. I think they are more about representation as tattoos are specific to each person who gets them and they usually have meaning behind them.

Response to Quote

"Perhaps I'm getting too old to understand but it seems to me that most young people today go out of their way to look ridiculous. Perhaps they just don't like themselves. How else can you explain the tattoos and body piercings? Why else would they dress in the style of convicts, hardened criminals or extras from a horror film? As for music, the most popular types seem to celebrate negative or anti-social behaviour: violence, drug abuse, suicide, self harm and anti-materialism. Is it all the fault of the older generation for bringing up youths who just reject society's values"

This quote is showing a negative approach towards youth culture and the subcultures which have become popular. I'd assume the writer of this comment is an adult as they are talking about how they don't understand the trends that 'young people' follow which would suggest that they're older. They state that people go out of their way to look ridiculous which shows a negative view towards the culture but I think this statement can be true for any style, not just youth culture. For example there were a range of subcultures around in previous decades that aren't present now and all of these had styles that could be considered ridiculous so it isn't just youth culture that is responsible for this. They begin to question why teenagers