Moore and the movies - when adaptations dont work

I chose this article because Alan Moore is highly regarded as one of the best novelist of all time and is a rare breed of comic writers who wrote them with adult themes that tackled issues that people seen as taboo and unspeakable of.

The article, written by Neil Daniels and published in 26th of December 2008, is about the differences in themes and messages that come across when Moores graphic novels are brought out as Hollywood movies. And how they are changed by Hollywood to appeal to the mainstream audience. The article comments on all of the movie adaptations that Hollywood have made to do with Moore's work and how they have drifted away from the themes within the graphic novels and how they have been recepted by audiences, critics and Moore himself, and to not surprise the reception is mostly bad.

The main points of the article are how Hollywood have tarnished and changed Moore's work so that it appeals to a wider audience, which has resulted in poor movies, angry fans and an even 'Moore' angered creator. The first movie adaption of one of Moores novels was that of his 572 page "From Hell", in Neils article he states that “There are significant differences between film and book, both superficial and structural” which is back up from a interview with Moore ere he states, "the movie wont be like my book" another quote from the article about the movie is what swayed me to agree with this section "The book is often named as one of the comic book industry’s greatest works; the film has largely been forgotten". This I agree with as although I have not read the novel or seen the movie, the fact that I heard about the novel and the praise it received from critics and the fact that I didn't even know the movie existed, even with a star such as Johnny Depp at the forefront tells me that it is much rather forgotten.

"The poor choice of casting and a convoluted plot meant the critics were less keen – and the comic book fans were not too happy either. Moore refused to have anything to do with the film and asked for his name to be excluded from the credits." This quote from the article, commenting on reactions to Constantine, shows us that both fans and Moore weren't too happy with the movie adaptation of the novel. Although Moore openly dislikes the movie adaptions of his novels, people questions why in the first place he gave away the rights to them in the first place, to which he comment back saying "I never thought the movies would be published, when i first sold the right to From Hell it was for money, but they (the producers and studio behind the movie) kept failing to make and release a movie version so when they offered to buy the rights for my other works, I agreed with the mind frame that they would never end up releasing them as movies". This has made me agree with the article as Moore himself in interviews has expressed the same defiance towards the movies versions of his novels that the article talks about.

This image shows cosplayers, who are people who dress up as characters from movies, games or anime/manga, and attend multi-media conventions. We see in this image people at the convention posing for a picture dressed as comic book characters, which include Captain America and Black Widow from the new Avengers movie. Their facial expressions show that they get submersed in their characters and the personality of them characters, for example Captain America connotes bravery and leader ship which is shown by his facial expression and stance, also by the way he is stood infront of the rest of the characters. 

In the foreground of the image we can see someone taking a picture of the cosplayers who seems to be using his own personal camera and is not doing it for press, he also seems to have a bag around his arm which suggests he is an attendee of the convention and is just a normal member of the public. This emphasises that this is just for fun and that the people cosplaying are not being paid but also doing it for fun, it also suggests it is tiresome and they might get asked to pose for pictures a lot, this is suggested by the redbull on the floor which is an energy drink. Also the fact that two of the characters are lesser none characters to the general public show that this is a more niche convention, and that people in the back ground do not seem to be fascinated by the cosplayers and are not taking much notice tells us that they are used to people dressed up in costume as characters at a place like that. 

Lines of Appeal

Lines of Appeal

1. The advertising campaign I will be analysing is the James Bond Skyfall Heineken advert. The humorous concept of this advert is that the bad guys pursuing Bond get the Heineken guy mixed up with Bond and think he is him, this then sets up for a cat and mouse chase through different Bond themed carriages on the train which makes for some funny, nostalgic Bond references. This advert primarily targets Bond fans and people who aspire to be cool like a Bond character. It uses humour to entertain us and also includes the new Bond girl and Bond himself which would appeal to the audiences need for aesthetic sensations.  

2. The slogan I will be analysing is the HP sauce – “A sauce of manliness”. This slogan uses humour to evoke its message that this is a man’s product and it is very masculine. The slogan uses metaphoric language to make it memorable as the “sauce” obviously means sauce as in the product itself but it could also mean source, it’s like saying that using this source will make you manly.

3. An advertising campaign that uses shock tactics is NSPCC child abuse adverts on television, the audience would find these adverts shocking because people would question and be disgusted in how anyone could harm a child. The advert uses shock tactics by explaining the situations the children on the advert are in and using numbers to tell the audience that this happens a lot and that these incidents are not one offs.

4. An advert I find that stereotypes a group of people is the “WKD Missus Alert” advert which stereotype men as being liars as the man in the advert lies to his girlfriend which is helped by the rest of the men in the pub. It suggests that men would lie to spend time with their mates instead of telling their partners the truth.

5. The Volkswagen “The Force” advert uses intertextuality of the kid in the advert being dressed as Darth Vader. This is a reference that virtually everyone would understand as Darth Vader is such an iconic character, it will appeal to the nostalgia of adults who will be purchasing the car but also because Star Wars is constantly in the media everyone will understand the reference.

6. An elite persons being used in an advert is the MORE THAN Freeman adverts which use Morgan Freeman as a voice over whilst they have another man miming, this is done for comedic effect. The reason his voice has been used is because people will recognise it and it is known a being a comforting, trustworthy voice which could persuade people to use the company’s product.

7. An example of a reward and punishment advert is EDF energy which promotes the idea of using their company then you will be rewarded as you are helping benefit the world. And if you do not use them you will be not doing your part to help the environment as they use recycled energy.

Media Diary - Text that changed my life

Media Diary Week 4 – Album that changed my life, Minutes to Midnight – Linkin Park

This was the first album I bought,  I was getting into music at the time and this had just came out and I remembered being even younger than I was at the time and they were in the charts and very popular.  I picked it up and went home, put it in my CD player and listened, I knew somewhat what to expect as they were a “rock” band but also included rapping in their songs. The first thing that comes to mind when I actually think of this album is the unbelievable scream on the song “Given Up”, that’s what I think help structure some of my taste in music now, but this whole album is why I love music as passionately as I do. It is the reason for all the variations in music I listen to, as it is such a rollercoaster of an album, the songs are so different but they go together on the album in some strange way, “Given Up” being a rock/metal song to “Leave Out All The Rest” being a soft rock/ballad type of song, to “Bleed It Out” being a nu-metal/rap rock song that we are used to from them. It opened me up to so many variations of the same genre, “rock”. This album shaped the foundations of my life as it is at the moment, its because of this /I dress the way I do, because of this I go to concerts in my spare time and get an unbelievable amount of enjoyment from doing so and because of this album I hang round with the people I do, we all like the same music-ish and all have opinions on it. Actually taking time to sit down and reflect on how important this purchase was on my life is quite a weird feeling, if I would of picked up an Eminem album or some rubbish one hit wonder I would very much doubt I would be doing this work today This album made me feel energetic, it opened my mind and made me think about how important music is. Now I know this album is nowhere near as good as this bands other albums and especially not as good as classic rock albums but for what it done, this is easily the most important album in my life, other albums have changed my view on things and how I view things but none have completely change me as a person like this did when I first bought it in 2007. 

Audience Classification - Doctor Who

I am going to be reviewing Doctor Who for audience classifiction, this is a science fiction T.V show on BBC that airs on a Saturday night at 7:35.

The general audience profile of a Doctor Who viewer is widely verid compared to more specific T.V shows that appeal to one or two types of people. The gender of a Doctor Who viewer is not really a factor as it appeals to both male and female, although there has been an increase in female viewers which could be because of the new younger Doctor which might appeal more to the 14-19 girl age range, but in general the people who watch Doctor Who could be from 5 to the age of 60 because of the older series, they might have a nostalgic feeling attached to the image of the Tardis. Self image might play a part in people who watch Doctor Who, there are people who liked to be seen as "nerds" or "geeky" and may feel my viewing this show others will perceive them as such. Class is also not a factor as people from class D up to A could watch this show because of the story and as I said nostalgic feeling they may get watching it.

Income and Status model doesnt really effect the viewers of Doctor Who as people in the A class might watch it because they like the stories or the actors, which could also be the same reason who people in the D class watch it.

Lifestyle wont really have an effect either on who watches Doctor Who, although people that dont like to be left out of the social norm and like to be a part of the crowd might watch it so they can join in the disscussions at the water dispenser. Also people might not watch it so they can stay out of social norm and might dislike the show because of its popularity.

As for the 4C's the people that will fall into the category of Doctor Who viewers could be the resigned because they might get a nostalgic feeling from watching the show, the mainstream as they could view it as a pass time or something they like and watch for entertainment and lastly the aspirer because other people may see them differently for watching it either it be in a better way or worse.

Doctor Who is a all round T.V show as anyone from a different class could find it appealing and enjoy watching it.

Review

Media Studies, Review of Fleetwood Mac’s album Rumours

Fleetwood Mac’s incredibly famous and successful album Rumours was released in 1997, and as of current record has sold over 40 million copies and is one of the best selling albums of all time. It also ranked 25^th on Rolling Stone magazines list of greatest albums of all time. Boasting its most successful and memorable line up of Mick Fleetwood on drums, John McVie on bass, Christine McVie on vocals and keyboard, Stevie Nicks on vocals and Lindsey Buckingham on vocals and guitar, they have  produced one of the most iconic albums of all time. Rumours is comprised of 11 tracks, which all could be considered classics. It was recorded in Miami and Los Angeles and was produced by Fleetwood Mac themselves, Ken Caillat and Richard Dashut.

Each song on this album is different and easily recognisable, if it be from the opening song “Second Hand News” with is country feel to “Gold Dust Woman” with the legendary singing of Stevie Nicks, this album has it all. Even though each track is memorable in its own right, the first showstopper is “Dreams” which with its relaxing mellow vibe, Nick’ vocals and unbelievably catchy chorus makes this song not only a fan favourite but a well known classic by all. Soon after that we have “Don’t Stop” which is one of the better known songs of the album, it is an all round happy song that makes you want to sing along and generally be happy, the harmonies by Buckingham and McVie are done perfectly and sets the good feel vibe of the song, we are also treated to the first guitar solo on the album that yet again follows that happy vibe. The next song which is arguably their most well known is “Go Your Own Way” which was wrote by Buckingham about Nicks as they were going through a break up at the time which is the main source of writing behind the album. This song is a rock classic and probably one of the catchiest songs to have produced in the 70s, again the harmonies by Buckingham and Nicks this time are perfect and help take the song to the next level. But the most stand out aspect of this song are the incredible guitar solo’s by Buckingham that makes not only me but many question why he is not considered one of the guitar greats along side Page and Hendrix’s. The last song I will talk about and my personal favourite is “The Chain” which has acted as a sort of personal motto to the band with the main lyrics being “chain keeps us together” because of all the troubles that the band went through recording the album, this song was wrote as too separate pieces of music then put together later on, this gives it is unique sound and power as it is joined together by a bone trebling bass line and guitar solo.

Even though this album has sold over 40 million copies, I would not suggest it to everyone as they might share the same amount of passion I do for each song on this album. Saying that, there is definitely something here for everyone on this album but as an album overall because of its eclectic style its not for everyone. Personally I can not find a fault with this album, others my see some songs as forgettable as they are not as catchy as others on the album. Overall I would give this album 10/10 but I could see others not agreeing with me as they might not of liked the feel of the album.

Francis Harvey