Woolwich Terrorist Attack Top Trump

Woolwich Terrorist Attack Top Trump

On May 22nd 2013, British Army solider Lee Rigby was brutally murdered by Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale in Woolwich, South East London. The attackers claim that they killed the solider to avenge the killings of innocent Muslim's by the British armed forces. One of the passers-by managed to interview one of the attackers, Micheal Adebowale in a video recording in which he has the blood of the victim on his hands and is also holding the weapon he used in the attack. In the video, Adebowale gives a detailed explanation on his reasons for committing the attack claiming "The only reason we have killed this man today is because Muslims are dying daily by British soldiers. And this British soldier is one … By Allah, we swear by the almighty Allah we will never stop fighting you until you leave us alone.". The graphic footage was first broadcasted to the public on ITV new at 6:30pm, it was then broadcast on several other news channels such as BBC news, Channel 4 news and Sky News. OFCOM who is responsible for regulating content broadcasted on television and radio received over 700 complaints as they believed the graphic footage was unsuitable to be broadcasted before the 9pm watershed. The watershed is considered one of OFCOM's most important and effective regulations with 93% understanding why the watershed regulation has been put it place. It restricts any material unsuitable for children from being broadcast before 9pm and after 5:30am, this includes sexual content to violence, graphic or distressing imagery and swearing - expect when it is justified by its context. This rule is what made the case so controversial, as a statutory regulator, OFCOM have the duty of maintaining the public interest. It was argued that broadcasting the graphic footage of the Woolwich Terrorist attack was justified as it was within the public interest to broadcast the footage in order for them to understand the reason behind the attack. Because OFCOM is a statutory body, there political and social factors affecting their decision to continue to broadcast the footage on television before watershed. One of these factors is the fact that the attack was a terrorist attack. Terrorism has had a substantial effect on society since the 9/11 bombings in 2001 and is a re-occuring issue that is always stereotypically depicted as only being an Asian, Islamic issue. It could be argued that broadcasting the footage was legitimised as it can educate children on the true reality of terrorism which can occur in any race or religion as the footage changes the stereotype of the typical terrorist as it features a young black man born and raised in Britain rather than an Asian man from the middle east. This links to another factor which may be another reason why OFCOM decided to allow the footage to be broadcasted

Evaluation questions

My group trailer rough cut

My individual trailer rough cut

Location recce and risk assessment

Character Profiles

Essays

Question 1B: Genre

The media production that I am going to write about is the theatrical horror trailer ‘Carrie’. The genre of the trailer is horror which has been established using Graeme Burton’s theory. His theory states films from a particular genre will contain all the recognisable key conventions that have been continuously repeated to create a formula for the particular genre. In the trailer ‘Carrie’ recognisable elements such as the protagonists, stock characters, stock situations, icons, background, and themes have all been used to establish that the genre of the trailer is a horror. Although it is a horror trailer, it falls under one of the 9 subgenres of horror which each have different conventions which differentiate them from one another- in this case the sub-genre is supernatural/psychological horror. In this trailer stock situations such as religious prayer, levitation and possession are all seen in this trailer; for example an extreme close up of Carrie’s mother’s feet is framed which shows that she is levitating. These are all key elements seen in most supernatural horrors and will therefore establish the genre of the film to its target audience. Body transformation, in this case puberty is also seen which will appeal to a teenage audience and also establish the genre of the film. The stock characters include the jocks, teenage girls who are more superficial than Carrie and engage in sexual activity and drugs, for example Sue Snell and her boyfriend are shot kissing in the trailer which already identifies her stock character as one of the girls who engages in sexual activity and is therefore going to be punished; these are all conventions which will make the genre of the trailer immediately recognisable as a supernatural horror. However this trailer also subverts the conventional elements of a classic supernatural horror trailer. According to Christian Metz, film genres go through different stages and develop through time; the experimental stage, where conventions are first introduced to an audience before they have been fully established, the classic stage where the conventions have been repeated various times and has now been made into a formula that is recognisable to the audience, the revisionist stage where some of the conventions of the genre are challenged and finally the parody stage and finally the post-modern stage where the genre is used in a parodic fashion. In this trailer classical elements have been used such as the final girl, however the classical attributes have been revised, for example, conventionally the final girl is a girl with masculine qualities who does not partake in sexual activities or drugs. In this trailer however, the final girl is very feminine, this can be interpreted through her appearance, she has long blonde hair and blue eyes; as well as this she has a boyfriend and takes part in sexual activity, she also becomes pregnant. This completely subverts the classic features of a final girl and could be conveying a social message which is empowering females and subverting Laura Mulvey’s theory that women in film are only defined as man or ‘not man’. In addition the protagonist is a young teenage girl who is around the age of puberty, she is isolated and different from the other girls in the sense that she does not go to party, have sex or take drugs; this is usually the attributes of the final girl but in this case, the young girl becomes to the threat which takes a revisionist approach to supernatural horrors. According to Metz, genres have to go through these different stages in order for the audience to stay entertained and not get bored, this links with Steve Neal’s theory that pleasure is derived from repetition and difference, he argues that there would be no pleasure without difference which makes revisionists elements essential in the making of an exciting horror trailer. This trailer also follows classical conventions of the role of a female in supernatural films, Carrie is a young woman who possess telekinetic powers; this theme of possession links to puberty and has sexual connotations suggesting that teenage girls having sex is wrong.

Question 1B: Narrative

Narrative refers to the way the story is told in the film using different devices. Todorov came up with a narrative theory; he states that every trailer is made up of an equilibrium which is the state of normality, dis-equilibrium which is when normality has been disrupted, and the resolution when the state of normality is re-introduced, which suggests that the narrative to all horror films is going to be told in a similar way.This is clearly demonstrated in my chosen trailer; at the beginning of the trailer, an establishing shot of a normal looking house is framed which reflects the normal everyday lives of the average person. The equilibrium is further established in a wide angle shot of a normal school and a two person shot of Carrie and her mum which suggests that they have a normal mother-daughter relationship. Later in the trailer, the disequilibrium is introduced, this is shown through quick cuts between Carrie and the door she is locked behind, a close up shot of the door is framed and a crack appears in the door which is when Carries telekinetic powers are introduced and the state of normality is disrupted. In the trailer, we do not see the resolution as the viewers will  be persuaded to watch the movie as they will be intrigued to see how the story plays out.