Reflective Piece (Unit X)

I did my best to attend every lecture, seminar and cinema screening I could. I found the cinema trips useful; as I had something to write about, and enjoyable. I also felt the lectures on blogging, particularly the Noel Mellor lecture, was extremely useful as it helped shape the way I approached all my blog posts. By keeping a media diary, I was able to see what genres of program and which types of media I did not consume as often and this helped broaden the scope of my media consumption.

I noticed, through my media diary, that early on in my work I stuck almost exclusively to consuming limited media which inevitably influenced the content of my blog and discussions. I focused mainly on reviewing music and films. By reflecting on my media diary I noticed the limitations in my work. By the second week I made an active attempt to leave my comfort zone and engage in a wider variety of media. I began gaming and watching reality television and though I did not necessarily enjoy the latter, I found it far easier to write.

I usually communicated my ideas by talking directly, both in and outside of seminars, or text messaging my peers. I think the fact I did not use social media as a platform to do this demonstrates the limited nature of my engagement to certain types of media.

By attending the blogging lectures and researching and watching other bloggers and writers, I feel I have developed a more unique writing style. The unit has demonstrated to me the volume of opinions and thoughts about all types of media communicated through online mediums. The blogging element of the unit is something that interested me as I enjoy writing and hope to perhaps one day pursue a career in journalism.

Reflective Piece (Group Work)

During the group section of the Unit X project I worked with two other students to produce infographics. We would meet to discuss which infographics we would produce, meet again to share our own individual efforts and once more to perfect our final choice for submission. 

By dividing roles equally and attempting to create an individual piece each I found that the group was able to select the best qualities of each infographic and therefore amalgamate these aspects to come out with the best possible result. Though at first we all assigned roles based on producing parts of a single infographic, we soon found this an impractical way of producing an infographic; the contrast in style between our individual pieces made for poor and often messy looking infographic. By each producing an infographic each, we found the quality of our work to improve. 

Our initial attempts to assign roles garnered lower quality work. We found that sharing duties rather than attempting them alone to be more effective. We approached the infographics the same way, in so far as our method of work once we established an effective procedure did not change. We decided and selected our topics by looking at trending news items on various news websites as well as by viewing social media. When we had a conflict or disagreement on what to select we would observe what is more topical and relevant to the week.

Overall I was pleased with the collaboration. Group work is significantly different from individual work and, though it is not always your own ideas being used, being able to collaborate creatively created, in my mind, better work. Working in a group has left me able to develop ideas further with more effect which is a skill I acquired through regular discussions regarding our group work. Though I felt our group were successful in producing our infographics I felt that had we began sharing duties rather than attempt to work more individually we would have got off to a better and quicker start. The nature of the unit meant that I was engaging in lots of media, which helped my approach. However I do feel that diversifying my media consumption further would have helped.

Footballing Infograph

With The Premier League over, this infograph looks back at some of the biggest calamities and disasters of the 2013/14 season.

Banksy Infograph

Sign Of The Times

When the recession hit back in December 2007 many were hit hard by the banking failures. It wasn’t long before men and women were out of the job and businesses were struggling. Seven years later, the shadow of the recession still looms over Great Britain and has severely affected the job market. In fact, around 20% of young people (men and women between the age of 16 and 25) are unemployed. This is the highest rate of unemployment since 1997. With youth unemployment costing £4.7 billion a year, few could laugh at the situation... Few with the exception of BBC 3!

Invasion of the Job Snatchers is a six part series that chronicles unemployed young men and women competing for jobs in the town of Christchurch. In the current job market this seemed to me like a poor idea for television; on paper it seemed sure to irk and irritate as well as make light of what is honestly a dire situation in the United Kingdom.  The difference between a programme like Invasion of the job Snatchers and the X Factor is the latter programme deals in hopes and dreams. With the amount of TV talent shows on air these days it is arguable that we, as an audience, have become somewhat desensitised to the shattering of peoples hopes and dreams. A failure to achieve a dream does not shock. Invasion of the job Snatchers instead deals in people’s livelihoods and to see someone fail to achieve a job is truly worrying. When a Britain’s got talent or X Factor contestant is voted off or otherwise loses it is not the end of their job. Very rarely does a runner up or contestant fail to achieve some small musical or entertainment career, One Direction being a primer example of this. When the young people who took part in Invasion of the Job Snatchers left the show there was a strong sense that they would continue to struggle to find work. One contestant named Benny Cracknell, a flamboyant and eccentric but hard working employee, failed to get a job simply because there was not one available for him, a sad fact about today’s job market. Other contestants included Carl Owen, a young man with a criminal record who had lived on the streets as a homeless youth, and Adam Pike, who had been made redundant and could not find work due to his lack of qualifications.

I did however find that I enjoyed the programme. It was extremely cathartic to see contestants such as the single father Sean Blain succeed and gain his job in a garden centre. It was also easy to relate with some of the employer’s anger and irritation; for example the contestant Rachel was continuously late managed to cry her way into a job before throwing away the contract she was offered at the end of the programme. The programme did raise a few important issues however. The youth of today really did seem to have an issue with laziness, rudeness, and sense of entitlement. Though some candidates were obviously picked to juxtapose the conservative town of Christchurch and create a conflict, Britain's youth came across as utterly hopeless and unemployable for the most part. Perhaps BBC 3 didn’t create an entertainment show, but instead have present us with a cutting edge social study.

Same-sex Marriage Infograph

An info graph detailing the current status of Same-Sex Marriage and specifically in the United Kingdom.

Roger The Alien Infograph

American Dad Info graph

With American Dad moving to TBS in summer, this info graph provides all the information concerning the many disguises worn by Roger the Alien.

Adam Ant @The Ritz

Adam Ant and the Ministers of New Super Heavy Funk Punk @The Ritz, Manchester

The Dandy Highway Man isn’t feeling so dandy anymore.

So, Adam has replaced his Ants with a new Band; Will Crewdson, Tom Edwards, Dave Barbarossa, Leigh Gorman and Jola, also known as the Ministers of New Super Heavy Funk Punk. Of course Barbarossa and Gorman once left the original Ants to pursue a career in Bow Wow Wow but there seemed to be no hard feelings here. Adam strutted on to the stage an hour late to a riled audience, looking like an amalgamation of a pirate and biker, and leered at the crowd as the deep Bass-line of Cartrouble shook the room. As Adam delivered the first line of the song, all discrepancies surrounding his tardiness were forgotten. 

The first half an hour of the show served to remind the audience that Prince Charming was not always a pop star. Thunderous Punk Riffs and a sexually charged performance, with lyrics to match, almost erased the Dandy Highway man persona and replaced it with a Punk Veteran. But by song 7 Ant gives into audience pleas and blasts out “Stand and Deliver!” which is quickly followed by the jangly-upbeat Ant Music.

The songs sounded stripped back but the duel drum kits and harsh guitars somehow replaced the multi-layered tracks found of Ants record and translated the hits into fantastic live renditions. Goody Two Shoes almost cements Ant’s status as pop icon.  Ant however is quick to shatter the pop image that the hits inevitably carry with them as he breathes to the audience “I may look nice, but I’m dirty”.

The show ended with a blend of the thrashing punk guitar riffs of Physical (You’re So) as Ant was clearly reminded of the Ritz’s curfew of 11pm. As Ant sauntered off stage to leave his band mates to one last cadenza, the audience roared their approval at the marvellous blend of his Prince Charming pop hits and early punk rock. Ant proved why he deserves to continue to sell out venues and if you get the chance, at £20, this is not a show to be missed.

The Take Off And Landing Of Everything-Album Review

How does a band follow up a Mercury Prize winning album?

Elbow have continuously flown the flag with pride for British music. The Mercury Prize winning The Seldom Seen Kid gained Platinum status and famously remained in the UK album charts for 3 years. An impressive feat. But how does a band follow up an album such as The Seldom Seen Kid? Was the answer Build a Rocket Boys? In my opinion, no it was not. Though a fine album, it seemed to reduce the noise of the band and become somewhat of a Guy Garvey solo album. This was made evident through the chronicling Garvey’s youth in songs such as Lippy Kids that were so riddle with nostalgia that it felt like the soundtrack to a Hovis Advert. The B-Side compilation Dead in the Boot was not the answer either. It certainly was an excellent B-side compilation album and felt like far more than a stop-gap between albums, but lacked the characteristics that had made The Seldom Seen Kid and Leaders of the Free World the excellent albums that they are. Don’t get me wrong, Dead in the Boot and Build A Rocket Boys are both fine albums, they merely lacked the same qualities demonstrated in The Seldom Seen Kid. I am not suggesting that Elbow simply should have released an album of “stadium anthems”, because that would be an awful waste of talent.

Keep calm and buy this Album.

But there is an answer to how does a band follow up a Mercury Prize winning album and, though it may have taken Elbow two releases to discover the answer, Elbow have indeed answered the question; The Take Off and Landing Of Everything. This album was not released for the next big hit, such as One Day Like This, but for the masses of fans who have come to appreciate and love Elbow’s distinctive and pleasant sound. Garvey sticks, lyrically, to themes and topics close to his heart. The album’s second track ,Charge, charts Garvey’s irritation with being from “Another Century”, he puts it, whilst trying to remain relevant and, though this is certainly not an attempt to create the next anthem, one can’t help but imagine “Glory be these fuckers are ignoring me” being chanted by the masses at a festival or arena. The album’s opening track This Blue World almost seems the opposite to One Day Like This both tonally and with respects to the lyrical content, which concerns Garvey’s split from long-time girlfriend Jane Unsworth. Though a gentle and soft song, This Blue World paints the image of the morning after One Day Like This when everything has gone to shit. But don’t be deterred if you dislike any slightly depressing music, the album has plenty of pleasant cheerful moments.

Though I personally found some criticism to be unfounded, such as the band being boring and unchanged *cough* NME *cough*, it is obvious the Garvey has a tendency to slip into a discussion of his love of all things booze related. It is arguable that this is relevant in an album that concerns going through and overcoming a mid-life crisis, but it wears thin after a while. In fact, six of the ten songs contain references to, to borrow a phrase from Roger the Alien, “The Devils Nectar”. A few of the compositions did feel rather reminiscent of some Elbow classics. Fly Boy Blues certainly emulated the sheer epic riffs found in Grounds for Divorce or Leaders of the Free World whilst This Blue World “borrows” a small section of One Day Like This as the Guitar climbs its way back down the major pentatonic.

The Take Off And Landing Of Everything is a good album, there is no doubt. It is not however as “friendly” as The Seldom Seen Ki” and perhaps not the best place for a budding Elbow fan to start. Despite this, a solid album deserving of a solid score, The Take Off And Landing Of Everything earns its 8/10 rating.

Media Diary

Media Diary

Before doing this exercise I had considered myself, in the sense of my consumption of media, to be varied and fairly open minded. I had not thought I confined myself to a particular genre or program. However my diary appears to be more of a schedule than a collection of things I have watched. I began to notice, whilst recording my media consumptions, that my parts of my day did revolve around certain media. For example, on Monday and Friday I woke up especially to watch Everybody Loves Raymond and I watched American Dad almost every night, usually putting off sleep to do this. Whilst I identify myself as a fan on these particular shows I would not have thought I was an avid follower, though my diary suggests otherwise. I had in fact thought that the only program I followed was actually watching or listening on Five Live to Manchester City football matches and then following up on the game by reading articles posted about the matches. Despite this I do not feel like my media consumption dictates my life. On almost every day I am able to turn off all media devices and focus on practicing guitar or practicing in a band. I did however notice that it made its way into some aspects of my day that I had never considered to be times that I would consume media. Whilst walking my dog, and on one occasion whilst trimming the grass, I listened to my iPod.

I do feel like I consume a reasonably large quantity of media though the content is not varied. As a result of this, I will now make more of an effort to consume a wider variety of media texts.

(Diary Below)

Roger the Alien.

Monday

08:00am-09:00am: Everybody Loves Raymond (2 episodes)

Train to Manchester 09:30am-10:30am: iPod/Angry Birds Star Wars

Cinemas 12:50pm-15:00pm: Grand Budapest Hotel

Train home 16:40pm-18:00pm: iPod

18:30pm-19:00pm: How I met your mother

Guitar Practice 19:05pm-20:05pm (No media)

21:00pm-22:00pm: Top Gear on iPlayer/Check emails

Tuesday

10:am-12pm: Ferris Bueller’s Day off/text messaging

Train to Manchester12:15pm-13:00pm: iPod/Metro Paper

Cinemas 13:45pm-15:30pm: 300: Rise of an Empire

Lunch: Texting

Train home 16:45-18:00: iPod/Manchester City fan app

Guitar Practice (18:30-20:45pm)

21:00pm-22:45pm: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (With Mum)

22:45pm-23:25pm: American Dad (2 Episodes)

Wednesday

11:00am-11:30am: Text messaging/Browsing tickld

12:00pm-12:30pm: Downloading from iTunes

12:45pm-14:00pm: Streaming latest How I met your mother episodes

Lunch: Browsing internet/responding to emails

15:00pm-18:00pm: Played Fable: The Lost Chapters

Drove to airport

19:45pm-22:00pm: Manchester City vs. Barcelona

22:00pm-22:15pm: Read online match report, BBC/the Guardian

22:45pm-23:25pm: Watched American Dad (2 episodes)

23:30pm-00:30am: Listened to Take-off and Landing of Everything-Elbow (New Album)

Thursday

11:00am-11:15am: Responded to emails/Watched This Morning

Walked Dog, listened to iPod

12:30pm-14:00pm: Composed on Garageband

Star Wars: Episode 6
Return of the Jedi

14:05pm-14:25pm: Ate lunch/played Angry Birds

Guitar practice: 14:30pm-17:00pm (No media)

Walked Dog 17:15pm-18:30pm (No media)

19:00pm-20:00pm: Ate/made dinner (Watched Simpsons on repeat, followed by Big Bang Theory)

20:00pm-22:00pm: Watched new E4 Comedy

22:00pm-22:30pm: Watched BBC 3 new comedy

22:45-23:25pm: Responded to audition invitation/Watched American Dad (2 Episodes)

Friday

08:00am-08:20am: Watched Everybody loves Raymond

Train to Manchester 08:30am-09:30am: iPod/Angry Birds Star Wars

13:00pm-14:00pm: Ate lunch/checked messages/Angry Birds Star Wars

Train home 15:45pm-17:00pm: iPod/Metro newspaper

17:30pm-18:00pm: Confirm audition on gmail

Band Practice 18:15pm-22:00pm (No media)

22:15pm-23:30pm-Local pub/watched Sky Sports News

Saturday

Guitar practice: 09:30pm-11:00pm (No media)

Walked Dog 11:15pm-12:00pm (No media)

12:05pm-15:00pm: Watched Manchester City vs. Hull (With Dad)

15:30pm-17:00pm: Composed on Garageband (Soccer Saturday on in background)

17:00pm-19:00pm: Cooked/ate dinner with family whilst watching Chelsea vs. Aston Villa

19:15pm-20:00pm: Watched Federer vs Dolgopolov at Indian Wells (With Mum)

20:00pm-21:45pm: Watched Return of the Jedi (Whilst writing film reviews)

21:45pm-22:40pm: Played Fable: The Lost Chapters

22:40pm-00:20: Watched Match of the day whilst texting

Sunday

08:00am-09:00am: Walked dog, listened to iPod

09:00am-10:00am: Mowed lawn, listened to iPod

10:00am-10:30am: Watched How I met your mother

Drove to work/worked 10:30am-16:00pm

16:30pm-18:15pm: Watched North London Derby (With Dad)

18:30pm-22:20pm Drove/Ate with girlfriend and her family (No media)

22:25pm-23:25pm: Watched Match of the Day 2

300: Rise of an Empire-Film Review

300: Rise of an Empire

Whilst many of Frank Miller’s comic book adaptions translate well into cinematic releases, the academy award winning Dark Knight and the neo-noir thriller Sin City to name a couple, 300: Rise of an Empire is an example of when something is best left alone. Whilst the original graphic novel 300 was published the follow up Xeres, which serves as the prequel to 300 is based upon, never was published. After watching 300: Rise of an Empire I am not so sure that this was a bad thing.

Xeres arise from what one can only assume is a vat of hair removal cream.

Before mentioning anything about the content of the film there is one confusion that needs to addressed. Is the film a sequel, a prequel or does it run in parallel with the events of Rise of an Empire? The answer is all three and the execution is poor. The narrative is certainly not confusing, it is overwhelmingly basic in fact; a Greek war hero repels the Persian forces repeatedly after seeking aid from the Spartans who, after the death of King Leonidas, comply. It is the fact the film seemingly needs to write and demonstrate the origin of almost every character that makes the film a chore to watch. We, the audience, are treated to fifteen minutes of Xeres whining about his father and removing every hair from his body before murdering all of his most trusted advisors… why I am not sure. If it is not Xeres’ narrative, which appears and disappears as quickly as the film becomes boring, then it is the turn of the Greeks to discuss Eva Green’s woefully dull Artemisia. Artemisia, a Greek whose entire family was raped and killed by the Greeks, before she herself was presumably raped and the left for dead, is determined to wipe the Greeks out. An understandable motive, no question. However, the protagonist Themistocles is Greek and we spend the narrative encouraged to support the Greeks. Wait, are we supporting rapists and murders? And the Persians rescued her, healed her and raised her? Are they really that bad? Wait why do we want to Greeks to win? Even as I read and re-read the plot summary I cannot find any justification for the Greek’s actions. Like another film I watched this week, The Grand Budapest Hotel, the films had no qualms in altering history. It seems more like this was done, in the case of 300, to look cool. I.E. wouldn’t it be cool Themistocles killed King Darius I? I know they never actually met but Artemisia could pull the arrow that kills him out of his chest in front of Xeres and it could be metaphorical for her manipulation and shit? At least that’s what I imagine the meetings in pre-production of the film were like.

Not really sure what this look is trying to convey...

Anyway, the exchanges between psychotic necrophilia-enthusiast Artemisia and the wonderfully wooden Themistocles is laughable. “You fight like you fuck” says Artemisia as she attacks Themistocles and references the awkward sexual encounter between the pair. He does indeed “fight like he fucks”; with strange levels of aggression in front of Persians. But that brings me on to another point. The film played out like a video game. Themistocles the hero hacks through wave upon wave of faceless Persians before facing the slightly tougher “Boss”. It even felt like it came with a tutorial; charging down the enemy in slow motion and firing the arrow that slays the initial antagonist. It did feel like a quick time event in a game. To be honest, the slow motion was used so often that it lost all effect. Was it effective for conveying drama? No. Was it effective in achieving an emotional effect? No. Did it look cool? For about five minutes yes. After that it became thoroughly tiresome.

Much like its predecessor, the film offers up a myriad of screaming men brandishing spears and screaming in slow motion as they cut their way through the ineffective Persian army. It also treads dangerously close to, like the first instalment, being racist. Persia, or Iran, utilise suicide bombers… Hmmm. However, the film simply put looks fantastic. It really does. A highly stylised mise en scene that looks as if it has been perfectly lifted from the pages of a graphic novel, with low contrast in light and some excellent costumes (when characters can be bothered to wear them) certainly prevent this film from slipping into disaster territory. Despite this fact, 300: Rise of an Empire should be avoided by all but the most hard-core of fans or those with morbid curiosity.

Grand Budapest Hotel-Film Review

Grand Budapest Hotel

Gustave "Attends" to Madame D.

Wes Anderson’s latest cinematic release, The Grand Budapest Hotel can be described as stylish, charming, humorous, touching and in general entertaining. Imagine the beautiful pastel produced colours of the mise en scene in the Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou but remove the somewhat irritating and seemingly intentionally weird quirks that damaged the film. Grand Budapest simply looks beautiful and unlike Anderson’s 2004 instalment Life Aquatic, has a well-executed narrative that both made me laugh and was emotionally compelling. Fronted by an excellent performance by Ralph Fiennes and a wonderful ensemble cast,  with such precise choreographed comedic timing Grand Budapest really is a must see.

The set has clearly been constructed in painstaking detail and brings to mind a beautifully crafted doll’s house with its retrofitted design. With the matte painted backdrops and symmetrical shots the film is overwhelmingly pleasant to look at. You can’t help but imagine Anderson lifting the scenes of the film from a series of detailed sketches. You merely have to observe the production credits of Grand Budapest to realise that Anderson has been relentless in his construction of the film; Director: Wes Anderson, Screen Play: Wes Anderson, Story: Wes Anderson and Producer: Wes Anderson. Anderson’s devotion to the piece shows.

Like almost all Anderson productions the narrative is “distinctive” to say the least. The story begins with a girl visiting the grave of an Author. She reads his memoirs and we then cut to the Author describing his trip the eponymous Hotel. And so we, the spectator, are transported to the fictional Republic of Zubrowka. As the author meets the hotel’s mysterious elderly owner Zero Moustafa we are then Zero’s account of how he came to own the establishment and of his mentor the legendary Gustave H, the Grand Budapest's devoted concierge. When he is not addressing the needs of the hotel's wealthy clientele or managing its staff, Gustave attends to a series of aging, blonde women who enjoy his "exceptional service". All, however, is not well; Zubrowka is on the verge of war. Though the story and characterisation as well as the marvellous visual style was, in my opinion, excellent one of the film’s real strengths was Anderson’s clever use of costume and mise en scene.

Gustave and Zero stand outside the legendary Hotel.

Whilst some directors such as Tarantino, though a marvellous director, sometimes have such a disregard for history that it can be damaging to the film’s point, Wes Anderson thankfully avoids this trap.  Anderson’s use of a fictitious account of history serves not to confuse the narrative but instead allows the director to use iconographies that can tell the audience all that they need to know whilst never explicitly stating anything.  Watch out for the subtle change in costume between the Pickelhaube (Imperialist German helmet) style of helmet, worn by Edward Norton, to the attire that is clearly reminiscent of the uniform worn by the SS during the train carriage scenes. It’ll reminds the you that the film is set against the backdrop of a war torn Europe but is really about the end of an era of decadence and the birth of a world that is, quite literally, muted in colour. The film however does not seem to make a political statement; these backdrops are far more tonal than anything else. The execution of these elements is near flawless.

Overall, this is a film of many strengths and though it inevitably has its weak points, I find I am unable to take of my rose tinted glasses and will certainly be returning to this particular film.