Blackpool Opening Scene

In the opening sequence of the television drama, the audience is shown a close up and a long shot of the white stretch limo. The limo represents masculinity and the working class, and it comes across as quite tacky.  The words ‘Blackpool’ slides across the screen in big gleaming lights as diegetic music of Elvis play during the sequence. There is a tracking shot of the big house that the protagonist lives in as the limo pulls into the driveway. We are then shown the protagonist getting ready and dancing and singing in front of the mirror. He is coming his hair; he’s a sharp dresser, wearing a white suit and tie. His appearance is very ‘Elvis inspired’, especially his hair and sideburns. He seems conceived. There is an over the shoulder shot of him as he pampers himself and looks into the mirror. The camera switches to an extreme close up of the man hand as he puts on aftershave. This makes him seem vain, yet confident. There is another close up shot if him doing up his tie as he gets ready.

The camera again switches to a women character and pans around her. She is sitting on the edge of her bed, and who as well is getting ready. She too is singing along to the track. She is the wife of the protagonist. She is wearing a low top and high heels and gives the impression that she is used as a sex object.

Afterwards, there is a bird’s eye view shot of the daughter as she lies on her bed. She is talking on the phone and painting her nails (multi taking). As she sings along to the track, she looks like the image of her mother, especially in what she is wearing and how her image is. The camera zooms in to her face. Then, the camera cuts back to the father and there’s a close up shot of him putting a watch on and sliding rings on his fingers. These items suggest that the protagonist wears tacky jewellery. The camera moves back to the protagonist and moves towards the mirror, where you can see the wife in the background too. Most of the lighting is providing by lights in the house, and is very ambient. The camera switches back and forth to the wife and husband getting ready and both miming the words to the Elvis song.

The camera then switches to a low angle pan shot of the young boy who is the son. He is standing outside of the house on the balcony, lighting a cigarette. The lighting is very non-ambient, as it is late and dark outside. He is wearing basic clothes and they’re not very formal, comparing to the rest of the family. This shows him as an outcast and a rebel of the family, but also that he is not fitting in. He is also miming the words to the song that is still playing.

The male and woman protagonist and the daughter then come out of the rooms ands head downstairs, while dancing, the boy the follows on as he is beckoned by his sister. By what he is wearing, he looks out of place with the rest of his family. There are various close ups here, as we see one up close at the male protagonist as he is singing and one of all of their feet as they walk down the stairs.

The camera cuts outside as the family walk downstairs, outside. We can see high/side angle shots showing the family as a group. The camera zooms out as they get into the white stretch limo. From here, there are lots of low angle shots of buildings and sights in Blackpool, and the audience is shown what type of place it is. The family are drinking champagne in the limo and there are lots of close up shots of each of the characters faces. There’s a tracking shot of the limo as it travels down the road and also the characters, as they look out of the window. The camera zooms away on the road of which the limo is travelling. The limo eventually stops outside a building, which is a casino. As they enter it, there are lots of protestors outside, and the camera closes up on some of these signs after the family pose for pictures. The protestors are obviously unhappy with the fact that the casino is opening up. There’s a close up of an old man who’s holding up a sign. He has quite a menacing look on his face. The old man protestor is wearing a dark suit and he’s an antithesis. This seems like he could be the protagonists enemy but also shows he’s a moral figure. The editing here is very quick and swift.

As the family enters the casino, they are still singing the words to the elvis song. They are greeted by applauses by fans and spectators. The male protagonist and the family, stand on a balcony as the he gives a speech of the opening of the casino. The camera switches back and forth from him talking, and high angle shots of the admirers and people watching. The lighting here, reflects the view of gambling. It’s bright and breezy when the thought of gambling is good. And it shows the darker side to gambling through dark contrasts of light.

Throughout the speech, the camera cuts to the family in response to what he says, the daughter looks at the father with a smile on her face, which suggests that she looks up to him. The wife however doesn’t look too pleased sometimes as she is seen looking unsatisfied and at one time embarrassed when the male protagonist says some foul-mouthed words.

Media Questionnaire

My Name is Jamil Khan. My GCSE results are a C in Geography, A C in Drama, a C in I.T, a C in Sociology, A B in Religious Studies, a D in Technology, a C in English, an D in English Literature, a C in Science and a C in Additional Science.

My hobbies are listening to music, making videos for my Youtube channel. Playing the drums, and spending time with my friends.

The newspapers I read are The Sun, The Guardian and The Times.

I read the sun because it has all genres of news in it, such as Showbiz, TV and sport. I read The Guardian and The Times, because it focuses more on politics and the government where as The Sun doesn’t really focus on that.

I prefer to read the news online then buying a newspaper because on the Internet it’s easier to find news and lot easier for me then going to a shop and paying for a newspaper I will just look at and then never read again.

The Radio I listen to is Radio 1, I listen to this because it has a varies news and entertainment where as stations like Kiss for example I feel only reach out to one generic audience.

My favourite genres of music are Electronic, Dubstep and indie rock music.

I access music on the internet and I feel that illegally downloading music off the internet isn’t as bad as everyone makes it out to be, infact now’er days lots of people do it more, are you going to be able to capture every single person that downloads music? If your downloading a certain bands album, your downloading it because you want to listen to it and you like what music they play. And isn’t that what it is mostly about? Not money, but the love of music? Technically by the law you are stealing, but it doesn’t cause any great harm then other crimes. It’s the record company’s that get angry about it most, because they are the ones who are selling it and want to get money from the albums. Whereas an artist concern is that people are taking interest in they’re music and people starting to like it, having more fans perhaps? You may in the future go and buy there album because you like they’re music. But most of that money goes to corporations (record companies).

I think the music industry has an affect and influences a lot of people, I think how people dress, relates to what music people listen to as music can sometimes be a ‘lifestyle’ and people want to be a certain stereotype.  Personally it doesn’t affect the way I dress massively, but it does have a small affect.

My favourite games are the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises. I like this game as I like music a lot, and it can be fun to play instruments., even if it is pressing a few buttons… Sometimes video games can have negative attitudes towards certain conflicts and situations such as violent video games. This has been a controversial issue as people think that the games can make people violent mentally, especially small children. But I believe that as young children it is up to the parents to teach children about what to do in conflicts and situations and what the ‘right or ‘wrong’ thing to do is.

I think that new technology has helped industry and people widely to be able to do more things easier and better. Like sending an email portably without going to a computer and doing it. Also being able to communicate with people has become much easier now especially having long distant conversation with people. Also being able to watch films, television programmes and listen to music has become a lot easier to do with technology such as mp3 players, iphones and ipods.

My favourite TV channels are Sky Sports channels, Channel 4, and the BBC channels. I like these channels as they have programming on it that appeals to me and that I like to watch. My favourite TV genre is Adventure, I like this because it never becomes stale, and its never the same old stuff you can predict all the time. Television programmes I would consider memorable would be, Lost and House.

I would say Lost as it was very unpredictable and it through surprises at you a lot of the time and could be quite confusing at times, but it kept you at the edge of your seat. I would say House as it very emotional, and had a lot of twist and turns in the programme.

My favourite film genre is drama as they are good in the series plot driven presentations that they have and how you can relate to plots, as they may be real life situations and realistic characters that are based on regular people. 3 films that I think are outstanding are the blind side, 500 days of summer, and The shawshank redemption. The blind side is an outstanding film as it is based on real events and comes a cross as an emotional piece of film. It has a great plot, good actors and good dramatization. The director shows the story in a unique way. 500 days of summer is another good film as the story itself is different and original. Its not your average film love story, it shows a relationship in a real way, it’s a story people can relate to. It’s honest. As it is original, the soundtrack that comes with it is common music that usual people like the characters in the film would be able to relate to. The director has used various clever techniques like split screen to not make the film to boring and give it some light and originality. The shawshank redemption. The writer of this film is very good, and has told a story very different to any story. The emotion the actors send across to the audience is perfect and the scenes in the film are great. It’s a good film that was made because of the message it conveys. It is one of eternal hope. The film has a different feel to it as the main character never gives up his quest to become a free man out of prison as he is in there for a crime he did not commit. Stephen is an incredibly good writer, but his adaption’s are always done by the best directors., and he achieves this. It is that good of a movie that one that will be appreciated in years to come.

I like to consume films on television and watching them in the cinema. I would prefer to watch them on television. I occasionally watch movies at the cinema if it is a film I am desperate to see.

My favourite cinema in Norwich is probably Vue. I prefer Vue because as I think the seating arrangement is better compared to others as it benefits me for how well I can see the screen. The seats are comfy compared to Odeon as they have pull down seats that annoy me easily.  Plus Vue is in the city centre so therefore it is nearer to me.

I would prefer to watch films on my own because if I were to watch them in a group, people in that group could keep asking questions about the film and that would be annoying if I was trying to watch the film.

When it comes to media production I am a producer myself as I have an online youtube show, which is a wrestling league. I have been doing that for about 2 years now and it is a big hobby of mine. I was first interested in doing something like that, when I saw people in American do it and I was watching there videos and thought that that could be a lot of fun, and I could have my own view on it and my own ideas for a show.

A media text that has interested me is Slumdog Millionaire. This is a story where most of the ideas that are in the film are from real life situations and events. The production of the film has had a lot research gone into the slums in India and the good message that it send across of that ‘you can win. Plus the film is brutally honest, all the social evils and practises that really happen in a country like that. No director really has ever been bold or brave to portray Mumbai for what it really is (especially for me who comes from a nationality like that.). The plot of an underdog rising through all kinds of ranks to win the game show was something, which left a good taste in everyone’s mouth. And now to see the massively global it has become it can make people think about how places are perceived and if it’s telling the truth or not.

I chose media studies because I like the practical and academic side to it. The practical side of things gives us the opportunity to express our ideas and ourselves and to take them and put it all together. I like the academic side of it as we can dig deeper into media texts and see not what’s just on the screen but why for example a director has used different pieces of lighting for a scene or why he chose to use a camera angel for a certain shot.