MISE-EN-SCENE OF 'THE HURT LOCKER'

The mise-en-scene in the scene from 'The Hurt Locker' makes it very clear that it is an action and adventure film. Firstly, the buildings are very typical of a middle Eastern war zone - they are stone and whitewashed to reflect the hot sun, but are also quite broken down and derelict due to the war. The uniforms the soldiers wear also make it clear that they are soldiers because they are wearing traditional camouflage outfits as well as helmets and carrying weapons. This brings me on to the weapons - it makes it very realistic as all the soldiers carry guns such as machine guns and snipers and there is a bomb in the car, which all adds to the idea of action in a war zone. The tanks are another kind of weapon which adds to the war zone atmosphere. The outfits of the people who live in the place this scene is set also show how it is an Islamic country and so add authenticity to the scene, as they wear burkas and cover their heads (hijabs).

VALENTINA ADVERT

 

I have analysed three scenes from the Valentino Valentina advert (2011)

 

In this scene of the advert, Valentina is represented as famous and well known - everyone wants to take her photo, they want to know where she is going and what she is doing. She is represented as someone who a lot of people (women especially) aspire to be - famous, pretty and eye-catching. You can tell Vaentina is the focus of the attention because she is in the spotlight; you can see her clothes and hair and face whereas the reporters are all in shadow. Valentina is shown as important - her long, confident strides denote confidence, and she is positioned in the centre of the shot, as the centre of attention.
This advert uses celebrity endorsement to sell this product - people aspire to be like Valentina. Celebrity endorsement is becoming more and more popular as celebrities become more important to people. People care about their lives and what they are doing; how to be like them. This is how you get things such as 'celebrity stalking' - people using magazines like 'Hello' and the internet to 'stalk' celebrities. This has also made celebrity endorsed perfumes much more popular as people try to be like their celebrity idols. Valentina may not be a well-known celebrity, but she represents one and has the potential to become an idol to people, as a celebrity could. This type of celebrity endorsement is becoming more in-demand because as Andy Warhol predicted: 'In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes'.
Overall, this screenshot is all about constructing Valentina as someone the target audience want to be - well known ad eye-catching.

The advert is modern, and in this scene Valentina is at a party. Valentina is represented as sociable and popular. You can tell this because she is surrounded by friends who she is laughing and chatting with. It constructs her as the centre of attention, as she is in the centre of the frame. She looks happy and her posture is relaxed - she is leaning into the boy beside her. This shows she is at ease in social situations, which makes her seem confident and assured. Her clothes are fashionable and fit in with the clothes of those around her - her dress even stands out because it's black colour is quite contrasting with the gold/grey colours around her. This makes her stand out, showing again her confidence and how eye-catching she is. This scene appeals to people by promising popularity. You can also see she has a good looking boy with his arm around her shoulder, so the advert also promises that not only will you be popular but you will also get the attention of boys.
Valentina is represented as someone who can be both the centre of attention but can also have fun and have a normal life with her friends. She breaks with the traditional 'class system' of society and refuses to be positioned as an object by her peers, confined to being in one role. For a night, Valentina chooses friends and freedom over her high status party; she lives a lifestyle that could be similar to those of the target audience the advert is aimed at. This makes the ad relatable to the target audience, and makes it more modern.

This scene represents Valentina as sexy and desirable. She is looking into the eyes of a man, who is stereotypically attractive: chiselled jaw, high cheekbones, etc. This scene appeals by showing you that the perfume means you get attention from men, that you become attractive and desirable. It's quite an intimate scene - they are both looking deeply into each other's eyes and smiling slightly. It allows the viewer an insight into Valentina's private moments - the close up of the faces and the intimate expressions denotes attraction and desire. It sells intimacy and the promise of becoming attractive to men.

Now I've looked at all 3 screenshots, the fragrance seems to have strong messages and values of popularity, confidence and desirability. It promises the buyer all these things if they buy the perfume, as well as the originality of Valentina. She refuses to be stereotyped and makes her own style.

 

WHAT MAKES THE IT CROWD FUNNY

When I was watching 'The IT Crowd' (I watched the episode called 'FriendFace') I found several things that made the programme appealing. These included:

- the running joke of Moss and Roy being desperate for girlfriend (this is why they were so suddenly, comically eager to join FriendFace as there was a possibility of meeting women)
- the running joke of Jen wanting to get a boyfriend and prove she has done something with her life to other people like in this episode when she has to make up lies to feel worthy of her old friends from school creates ridiculous and comic situations such as the fake fight between Roy and Moss
- slapstick humour: characters making silly faces or noises
- Jen's complete incompetence in IT is comically ridiculous given her position as head of the department and also continues to create funny, silly situations such as her not being able to use the internet or the computer
- Ludicrous situations the characters get themselves into such as when they all end up talking to each other by computer in the same room
- Sarcasm and hypocritical lines by the characters like the 'less is more' line by Jen while she applies loads of lipstick also adds humour to the episode
- the stereotypical geekiness of Roy and Moss makes the show funny because of their ideas, the things they say and what they do, such as trying to become 'real men'
- Moss' awkward nature that leads him to say inappropriate things like telling people too much information about his and Jen's fictional relationship and making up the lie that Jen is dead. The awkward and embarrassing nature of these situations makes the programme funny
- Finally, the process of events, often including a lot of misunderstandings and ridiculous lies digs the characters deeper into their mess and often makes it even funnier as the situation gets worse

These are all the techniques I identified while watching 'The IT Crowd'
 

CHANNEL 4 RESEARCH

 

Channel 4’s guiding light is its remit, as laid out in legislation by Parliament. At its heart the remit requires us to be innovative, experimental, distinctive and diverse. It is multi-faceted, with different components, such as supporting and stimulating well-informed debate and inspiring people to make changes in their lives. The remit also suggests how we can deliver outcomes – for example by investing in high-quality media content and nurturing creative talent. It applies across the full spread of our genres – from comedy and film to news and education.

Audiences lie at the heart of everything we do at Channel 4. Our unique model means that we aim to have as wide an appeal as possible while also reaching out to specific demographics under-served by other broadcasters. We worked harder than ever in 2012 to engage with our viewers, harnessing new technologies to allow us to better understand their likes and dislikes and develop a more personal relationship with audiences that we expect to deepen further over time.

 

Channel 4 Comedy Programmes

-          2 Broke Girls

-          Man Down

-          8 out of 10 cats

-          How I Met Your Mother

-          Rules of Engagement

-          The Big Bang Theory

-          Father Ted

-          The Inbetweeners

-          Laughing at the…

-    Sean Lock: Lockipedia

-    Lee Mack Live

-    Black Books

-    Rude Tube

-    The Simpsons

-    Peter Kay - The Tour that Didn't Tour - Tour

-    Ugly Betty

-    Frasier

-    Fresh Meat

-    Desperate Housewives

-    Bill Bailey - Dandelion Mind

-    Whatever Happened to Harry Hill?

-    School of Comedy

-    8 out of 10 cats does Countdown

-   Charlie's Angels

-   Fresh Meat

-   Hit the Road Jack

-    Alan Carr: Tooth Fairy Live

-  Lee Evans: Roadrunner

-   Rhod Gilbert: The Cat that looked Like 

The comedy programmes seem to be mainly aimed at younger people - I think Channel 4 wants to appeal to a younger audience and does this by using slightly quirkier programmes you don't see on other channels

 

TEST SHOTS - BOLD AND OUTGOING THEME

I did some test shots for how I might want my perfume advert to look. I knew I wanted the model to be doing something active, not too posed, to fit the outgoing theme. It was raining and really windy on the day I took them, so I thought I'd take advantage of this and do some fun ones with an umbrella! I asked Eden (my model) to try and be spontaneous and do whatever she wanted. Here are the ones I liked the best:

 

PERFUME CAMPAIGN INITIAL IDEAS

The first thing I did when trying to work out how to start work on my perfume campaign was to create a brainstorm of ideas that I had, including themes, colours and bottle shape. I put in lots of very different themes to give myself a chance to compare and choose the one I liked the best. I knew already who I wanted my target market to be: teenage-young adult females. I chose this target market as I felt I could relate to them best.

My first brainstorm

 

While I was brainstorming, I came up with an idea I liked. This was the 'adventurous' theme you can see in the picture. I liked this idea as I felt it was different - not quite the like the other, more common ideas like 'girly and very feminine' or 'classy and sophisticated'. I also felt that the sophisticated, timeless theme fitted with an older target audience than the one I was aiming for.

I also thought I could have fun with the theme - there are lots of different ways it could be done for an advertisement - it is quite open and adaptable. The general idea behind the theme is that the perfume sells confidence - it inspires the wearer to be bold and outgoing, as well as suiting a person who already possess those qualities.

I decided to take this theme further and brainstorm more ideas as to how this would work. I looked at the themes of 'confidence' and 'adventurous spirit' in more detail here:

I decided to look at other perfumes similar to my idea, to see what other people had done and how well it had sold.

1.  

This is 'Boss Nuit pour femme' by Hugo Boss. It has a lot of the same qualities as my idea - it promotes confidence and a bold personality. The difference is the target market - this fragrance is certainly supposed to appeal to a more mature audience, and shows itself as a sophisticated, classic fragrance. The classical nature is reinforced by the fact that the model (Gwyneth Paltrow) is wearing a little black dress, a classic piece of dress that is considered timeless.The city in the background makes the ad more modern, with sky scrapers and modern constructions. I found a quote about the messages and values of the ad, saying: "To me, the Boss woman is driven, ambitious and goes after what she wants, but she balances being strong and very feminine at the same time"

I like these values and a lot of it fits with my own ideas and themes. Reviews described it as 'elegant' and 'fresh', although some people did not find it strong or unique enough, especially for a night fragrance. I would aim to make my perfume scent very distinctive and original, if I went with a theme like this


2.  
This is Adventurous by Estee Lauder. It is like my theme because it is specifically targeted at people seeking adventure - who are outgoing. In fact, it was sold as a 'travel exclusive' - you could only buy it at travel retailers, like when you're going on holiday at the airport. This limits the target audience and amont of people who can buy it to those going abroad or travelling somewhere, however it does give it a unique edge and certainly means that the perfume really does reach its intended demographic. I like the interesting, very different way of marketing this perfume and it could be something I'd consider to make my fragrance more original. 

Another thing I like about this perfume is that the target audience is similar to mine - it is for young women who are travelling, and therefore hopefully adventuruous and out going. The advert is also quite subtle - the only clue to the fact that it is for women who are travelling and going on an adventure as it were, is the tropical flower in her hair and her exotic gold hooped earrings and tanned olive skin. This clearly gets the messages and values of the product across but in a subtle way, which I like a lot, and would take into account when designing my own fragrance.

In conclusion, evaluating these two perfumes has given me a better idea of what other similar products are out there and shows me the positives and negaties of each, so I can learn from their mistakes and not make the same ones, but also I can use their good points as well.

PERFUME ADVERTS

These are the three perfume adverts I might like to analyse for own assignment, showing representation of women in perfume ads from across the ages:


Mavis 1915 ad

This advert sells glamour and wealth - the woman is sophisticated and aloof.

5 things I could say about this advert are:1. art nouveau 2. glamorous, sophisticated woman 3. woman's posture 4. perfume name font 5. perfume slogan - irresistible

1. Glamorous, sophisticated woman: The woman is dressed in lavish clothes in rich, dark, using a lot of material and therefore probably quite expensive; she embodies a woman of wealth and sophistication

2. Woman's posture: The woman has her head up and her eyes closed, making her look aloof; she is also leaning into a mirror, obsessed with herself and her appearance which makes her come across as confident to the point of arrogant (narcissistic). She is practically making love to herself in the mirror, and she is posed provocatively. It is quite an erotic advert.
3. Art nouveau: The advert is done in a typical style of the time, art nouveau, with rich colours (like black and red) and bold, organic style.

4. Perfume name font: The perfume name font  'Mavis', is I think, art nouveau - it is flowing and curvaceous - it is organic, which mirrors the elegance and extravagance of the woman

5. Perfume slogan: The perfume slogan is 'Irresistible', which shows the perfume makes you irresistible to everyone, even yourself, and that they/you become obsessed, as the woman is.

Imprevu by Coty

Imprevu uses the feminist ideas from the 1960s feminist movement that started in America about freedom and being independent, unlike my 1920s ad which focuses on glamour and sophistication...

5 points I could make about this perfume are: 1. feminism 2. strong, independent woman 3. appearance of model - no clothes, heavy eye makeup and short hair. New appearance - androgynous 4. fragrance name font - bold and big 5. fragrance slogan - feeling of freedom (NEW)

Feminism: see introductory sentence
Strong, independent woman: The woman looks empowered and free - she is standing alone and does not need anyone else to be happy. 
Appearance: The fact the woman is naked reinforces the sense of a strong woman - she does not care about not wearing any clothes or what people think of her because of it.
Fragrance name font: The font ties in with the messages and values of the product, so it too is big, bold, and stands out.
Fragrance slogan: The slogan talks about a new feeling, like a new feeling of confidence and women being able to get by on their own, and and also says a new perfume, so the perfume fits with a strong confident woman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBc-TXS59sw < this is a link to the 'Valentina' advert from Valentino, produced in 2011

This advert is very different from my other two, and portrays women as mischievous, daring and bold - still confident but with a flirty, almost minx-ish edge.

  

5 things I could say about this advert are: 1. modern 2. method/style 3. young, mischievous woman 4. woman's clothes 5. name of fragrance 

 1. Modern: The advert is a lot more modern than my other two, as although it features an old-style dance it also features a lot of more modern clothes and fashion as well as a night club style party

2. Method/style: This ad represents a woman's need to be free - to be able to do what she wants and go where she pleases and not be confined.
3. Mischievous young woman: The target market is young women who are confident and flirtatious, like Valentina in the advert

4. Clothes: Valentina's clothes are modern and elegant, with a shorter style of dress different to those around her - she stands out as modern yet sophisticated

5. Fragrance name: the name of the fragrance 'Valentina', means 'brave' and this mirrors the messages and values of the fragrance - Valentina is brave and bold, and escapes from the dance to do what she wants, to make new friends and socialise.

POSSIBLE FIRST FEW WORDS

This advert is by Mavis, and was published in the 1920s. It shows a glamorous, sophisticated woman. She has her hair up, make up on, and is wearing lavish clothes. She looks wealthy because she can afford huge, incredible gowns that would have cost a lot of money because of all the material they use. She is also wearing and surrounded by rich, dark colours like deep red and black, which were very stylish at the time. She has short, dark hair, a pale face and pronounced red lips, which again was very fashionable in the 1920s, and was a look many women were striving for. The woman in the advert represents the aspirations of women at the time: they wanted to be glamorous, wealthy and elegant, and this perfume is selling those qualities.

The woman’s posture is very noticeable too; she has her head up and her eyes closed, which makes her appear aloof and confident. She is also leaning into a mirror, obsessed with herself and how she looks, which makes her seem narcissistic and arrogant. She is almost making love to herself in the mirror, and she is posed provocatively, making it seem quite an erotic advert. It is veiled eroticism, masked by the glamour and sophistication you immediately see in the advert but when you look properly it is also quite clear how suggestive the advert is. It sells sexual fulfilment to a woman rather than a man, which was quite significant at the time, as women became the dominant consumers. However, the perfume is selling the fact that it makes you so desirable and incredible that you (and anyone else) cannot help but become infatuated with you. The advert taps into women’s insecurities – women generally want to look beautiful and be desirable to others. This perfume not only seems to make you good looking, but also so desirable that even you cannot resist gazing at yourself in the mirror. Women want to be the woman in the advert – rich, attractive, confident – and so it will make them want to buy the perfume.

The advert is done is art nouveau style, with deep colours and pretty, detailed images. It is bold and eye catching, which mirrors the advert’s messages and values. These are of being good-looking and confident. The detailed and appealing image of the woman shows the beauty side of the advert, while the bold, eye catching colours and pose of the woman show the self-assured, independent qualities the perfume is selling.

This leads into the perfume name font. It is rounded, smooth and organic – again in art nouveau style. It could be compared to the woman’s dress and pose – she is not standing straight and still, she is moving and even her dress seems to flow fluidly. It all ties in together to not only make the advert look more alive and appealing but also is a subtle continuation of the messages and values of the perfume – the boldness and the prettiness of the font reflects the style of the picture and the woman in it.

Finally, the perfume slogan, ‘Irresistible’ suggests that the perfume makes you so elegant, sophisticated and glamorous that you no one can resist you. The slogan identifies with a woman’s need to be loved and admired – it recognises it and promises instant transformation – just buy the perfume and you too will become stunning and classy and incredibly desirable to all. The slogan links with the woman’s posture and how she is completely infatuated with herself, showing how powerful the effects of the perfume are. The slogan also links with the insecurities of women involving looks and how attractive they are, which makes women want to buy the fragrance to solve their insecurities.

Overall, the perfume sells desirability, attractiveness, wealth, confidence and a generally glamorous lifestyle by tapping into women’s insecurities and their need to loved and admired.

Bibliography:

http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/a/art-nouveau/

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/art-nouveau-and-the-erotic/