The Inbetweeners

Note: "The Inbetweeners" has a name which looks like it is spelled wrong, and the more I stare at it, the more incorrectly spelled it looks. Is this just me? Please help.

Audience Pleasures In "The Inbetweeners"

"The Inbetweeners" is a TV comedy which centers around four teenage boys, and their lives. It is narrated by a boy named Will, a smarty dressed, clean cut, sensible boy, from a well off family who have unfortunately had some financial issues, and have been forced to send Will to a state school, as opposed to the private school that he was previously in. Will has previously lived a relatively sheltered life (we assume) as he sticks out like a saw thumb in his new school environment.

As Will is so socially awkward, the only people that he manages to make friends with are the other new kids, also referred to as "The Freaks", which he soon leaves to befriend another group of people, consisting of Simon, Jay, and Neil, who are arguably worse to be friends with than The Freaks.

A series of running jokes are instantly created in the group, such as people constantly referring to Will's mother as "fit", and making various crudely sexual remarks about her. (Most of the humour in "The Inbetweeners" consists of the four main characters making sexual remarks and sexual jokes about anything that has a pulse.) This is funny as most teenagers can relate to joking around with their friends in the same manor.

Another running joke is Jay making up endless stories about the extravagant ways in which he has "been with" another girl. He obviously doesn't tell his stories in such a modest fashion, but that only makes it funnier. Simon, is a hopeless romantic who has a major crush on a girl called Carli, but does such a good job at attracting her, that she wouldn't touch him with a ten-foot pole. It is hilarious to watch the epic ways in which Simon fails to win Caili's heart, and this is a running joke throughout the series.

Neil, the fourth member of the group, is what some people may refer to as "an idiot". He lives in a complete world of his own and could possibly have a lump of mashed potato as a brain. Neil's stupidity runs throughout the series and is incredibly funny to laugh at.

Another large proportion of the comedy in "The Inbetweeners", consists of the characters doing silly things, such as: Hitting a disabled girl in the face with a Frisbee, calling a group of people a very derogatory term only to find that they have Downs-syndrome, throwing up all over somebody elses kitchen, throwing up all over a 7 year old boy, and the list goes on and on.

The humour in "The Inbetweeners" is vulgar, and cheap, and simple, yet it is still incredibly funny. Perhaps this is because the situations are (fairly) relatable to most people over the age of 12. It is also always funny to laugh at people getting themselves into terrible situations. This is probably because we're all terrible people.

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The IT Crowd

"The IT Crowd" is a Channel 4 comedy which revolves around the IT department of a large company (Hence the name). I only had time to see the first episode of the first season called "Yesterdays Jam". It starts off with the one of the three protagonists, Jen Barber, blagging her way through an interview and managing to get a job as head of the IT Department.

We then meet the other two main characters, Roy Trenneman, and Maurice Moss. They are both in their office which is in the basement of the building that they are in. Roy is Irish, and a bit of a slob, and isn't the nicest person to the people that phone up asking for tech support. Moss, on the other hand, is a smartly dressed, well spoke, and enthusiastic person, with a deep knowledge of computers. Unfortunately he has absolutely no social skills whatsoever.

When Jen becomes the manager of the IT Department, it becomes apparent that she knows absolutely nothing about computers whatsoever. After Roy and Maurice fail to get rid of her, they instead join forces, as she agrees to help them their reputation improve with other people in the company. There are many things which make this episode funny, such as:

-A cheesy montage of the characters devising a plan, clearly parodying some earlier action films.

-The running joke of the whole IT Department answering the phone with "Have you tried witching it off and     on again?"

-The running joke of Jen knowing nothing at all about computers, and constantly getting shown up by              Maurice.

-The running joke of Maurice always taking things literally and saying the wrong things at the wrong time.*

-The running joke of Roy failing to pick up any women.

All of these are funny and make the audience laugh. The episode is also packed with other smaller jokes, and some funny lines. It is written in a very slapstick and old fashion way, which was the writers intention. It is very much in the style of "Father Ted" which he also wrote.

*Moss is arguably autistic.

ACTION HERO'S

Analysing The Lobby Fight Scene From "The Matrix"

Note: I will start analysing the scene 57 seconds into it. That way, there is exactly two minutes to analyse.

The 'lobby fight' from 'The Matrix' is one of my favourite scenes of all time, and 'The Matrix' is one of my favourite films. 57 seconds in, which is were this analysis will start, we see multiple pairs of legs running in the direction of the camera. This is a slight spectacle and looks quite cool. They are wearing boots, so we assume they are some sort of a SWAT team, which is then confirmed in the next shots. There are about three more shots after this, where we see the team getting into position, along with the sound of multiple guns being loaded and cocked. This indicates that there is about to be a lot of shooting, and that whoever they are about to shoot at, is in trouble. One of the team then shouts "Freeze!", which only puts the protagonists in even more jeopardy, as if they move, they will be shot.

We then see, that our hero's, Trinity on the left, and Neo on the right, don't really care what the man from the SWAT team has to say, so they just look at each other as if to confirm that they are about to do the most brave/stupid thing ever, and then they run their separate ways whilst they pull out some guns to defend themselves. This is closely followed by an over-the-shoulder shot of a SWAT soldier shooting at Neo, who we then see making his way to the wall, and then rolling on the floor in order to go back the way he came, and then taking cover behind a pillar. This is inter-cut with short, sharp shots of the SWAT team trying to kill him. This is mostly in slow motion which gives the viewer even more time to look at the spectacle that is occurring on screen. There is also a lot of action and motion, but then again, the whole scene has a fair share of action and motion. You can also hear the sound of gunfire and bullet ricochets and debris flying all over the place, so that you almost feel like you are standing in the middle of the lobby with them.

He then changes weapons, to some more handguns, whilst Trinity decides to do a cartwheel off of a wall, to avoid being shot by the angry SWAT team. This is all in slow motion, so looks epic, especially considering the fact that the film is 14 years old. Halfway through her physics-defying stunt, the shot changes to a shot from behind. We can see a SWAT member just in front of her, who is shooting at her, and therefore shooting at the camera. It is a miracle that she doesn't get hit, and creates suspense. She then adjusts her sunglasses to show that doing a cartwheel off a wall, whilst getting shot at, isn't really a big deal to her.

Afterwards, we see another SWAT guy shooting his assault rife, and we see Trinity come out of cover, where she successfully disarms and knocks out/kills the SWAT guy. She kicks the gun out of his hand, then kicks him in the chest, and then kicks him in the face. A fresh shot is used for each movement, which makes each kick feel sharper and more sudden. We hear a whooshing sound with every movement that she makes, and we hear a whacking sound as her foot makes contact with his gun/chest/face. She then gets shot at again, so runs away.

Meanwhile, Neo is still happily crouching behind a pillar which is being completely demolished around him. This shows us that the SWAT team are incredibly close to hitting him, and therefore killing him. We then see a close-up shot of his face as he gets up to face the enemy and engage in combat once again. He runs forwards in slow-motion, (which we see again in close up) shooting his guns everywhere. We see a shot of his feet, and all the shell casings landing on the floor around them. we hear his slow-motion gunshots and hear the shell casings on the floor. This gives the impression that Neo is very aware of what is happening around him, and it also looks and sounds cool, (more spectacle). We see some more shots of him running, and some SWAT people dying, and so on for the next 8 seconds.

Next we see another SWAT guy with a shotgun, and then we see a close up of Trinity turning her head and noticing him, so she goes up behind him and somehow manages to get his gun off of him, without him turning around, and then she shoots him in the back. This looks extremely impressive.

After that, she shoots a few more people, and a few more people shoot back, debris flying all over the place the whole time. Next we see a dolly shot of Neo running in slow motion. We see him disapeare behind each pillar as he runs behind it. The pillars are getting shot out and there are chunks of debri constantly flying at the camera. We then see another slow motion shot of him running, but this time looking at his front  instead of his side. This is intercut with some more aggressive looking SWAT people shooting their guns, but then we return to the side-on dolly shot of Neo. He does a very spectacular cartwheel, whilst everybody still shoots at him. They miss of course, but the jeopardy is still there. We then cut to a close up of his hand picking up a gun on the floor, and then we see some other angles (still in slow motion) of Neo gunning down half of the SWAT team, whilst doing a cartwheel. We here a deep whooshing sound for the duration of the cartwheel, which makes it seem as if he is whooshing past us.

We then see him kill another SWAT member in the strangely boring way of just shooting him. Afterwards, we see another slow motion shot of him jumping up into the air as he runs at the last bad-guy. His feet become level with the last remaining SWAT guy's head. We quickly cut to a closer-up shot of Neo kicking the bad-guys head, and then we cut back out again, and see Neo land, as the SWAT guy falls to the ground. The techo-soundtrack finishes, and so does the scene.

Reading Lynx

Wow! What a fantastic radio!

If there is one thing that I have learnt in studying media so far, it is that a lot more thought goes into a still image than most people (consciously) notice. If we take this ad campaign for "Lynx Dry Full Control", there is a lot of analysis that can be done.

Clearly the main focus of this image, is Lucy Pinder, who earns a living by posing for a camera, whilst wearing very little clothing. If we took the right-hand portion of this picture away, and only saw this "T and A" shot of Lucy Pinder, we would have no idea that this was anything to do with Lynx, (apart from the fact that the radio says Lynx on it.) In this case, however, the right hand side of the picture has not been removed, and it is indeed a Lynx advert.

If a young man was walking down the road, or surfing the web, and saw this come up, he would instantly make a connection between Lucy Pinder, and Lynx. The advert implies that if you wear Lynx, you will come home, walk into the kitchen, and find Lucy Pinder, in her underwear, in the kitchen, cooking you a nice roast chicken.

There is a lot more than meets the eye with this picture, at first. For example, the model is wearing red lipstick, which connotes lust and passion. Her lips are parted which indicates sexual availability. She is also back-lit, to help her stand out from the 50's/60's style kitchen that she's "standing" in. Why is the kitchen so much like a kitchen from the 50's or 60's? Because back then, times were a lot more sexist, and women stayed at home, cleaning, and listening to their 50's radio, and cooking a turkey in their 50's style oven. Women did whatever the men told them to do. Therefore, setting the advert in a 50's style kitchen, implies that she too, will do whatever the man wants her to do.

"Can she make you lose control?" This has an incredibly obvious duel-meaning that most people over the age of 12 would understand. This flatters the person who reads it and understands the clever wording that is used, as it makes them feel clever.

Overall, it is clear that whoever created this advert, lives by the phrase "sex sells". This ad campaign was actually banned, I cannot say that I'm surprised.

Lucozade

In Wednesday's lesson, we learnt about Lucozade, and the history of advertising for Lucozade. It started out as a drink that people would consume if they were ill, as it would supposedly make them feel better. This was demonstrated in one advert where a woman gave some Lucozade to a sick child.

Later on however, it was advertised as a sports drink. One of the adverts demonstrating this, was an athlete practicing running. When he drank Lucozade, his performance improved. This showed. that it gives you energy and boosts your performance and concentration at most activities. As mentioned in the video we watched, they could have just had somebody in an office looking stressed out, and then drinking Lucozade, but that would have been boring, so they opted for more exciting things instead.

Afterwards, they moved on to using Lara Croft to advertise their drink. Lara Croft is a fictional character from a series of Playstation games, which go by the name of "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider". This is because her name is Lara Croft, and she raids tombs (surprisingly).

Lucozade chose Lara Croft, because as a computer-generated character, she couldn't make any mistakes in public which would show them up. Also, the Lara Croft games had a large following already, so the adverts would already appeal the the audience that play the games. On top of this, she has a very curvaceous body, which was attractive to many young men at the time. She also is a very outgoing adventurous character which many people could aspire to. As you can see, there were many reasons that Lucozade used Lara Croft to advertise their product. The advert cost a very large amount of money, and took 3 months to make. Luckily, it payed off.

Above are different shot types used in films.

OUR FIRST MEDIA LESSON

Today was our first media lesson. We started by talking about what we would be doing in GCSE Media. Then we looked at an old mouthwash advert from the 1930's. Afterwards we watched a Coke Zero advert which was linked to "James Bond: Quantum of Solace". We then talked about the GCSE Media Blog. I look forward to doing Media!