Last Minute Tips!

It seems there is a lot to remember for this exam, but I am convinced it is easier than it looks so don't worry!

1. Any 'historical' content should be very brief compared to the analysis of texts you have studied from the last 5 years. That's Adulthood, Attack the Block, Skins, Waterloo Road, BBC News etc. Anything from 2008 onwards.

2. You should mention the years of these productions in brackets as you mention them (2011)

3. VERY IMPORTANT - You should try to mention near the end of you essay what you predict may be the future of representation for this genre! How do you think it is going? WHere do you think it will end up? Why?

I think that's it! Get revising, and keep checking back.

Blogging for the next 2 hours!

Great to see the hits are mounting up. Thanks! Thanks also to Richard for your massively kind words. With regards to essay plans...

I can't really help with 1b now I am at home, although I will look later. I have already posted essay plans for 3 of the 5 possible areas in 1a. Look at the post entitled "Revision stuff - the beginning" or something like that. I think I posted it yesterday. I can't give you anything too precise as everyone's answer will be individually tailored to their own work.

Things I am aiming to put on here tonight (before 8PM)

*A few last minute pointers.
*The character profiles which I gave out to about half of you in booklet form!
*Full 'representation' essay
*Help for 1b if I can find anything online!
*Anything you care to request.

Hopefully if you read everything I have put on here for the last 2 days, you should feel pretty well prepared.

Stay tuned!

NW

Essay Plan

1. Give introduction to the themes surrounding representation of Black People in Media. Explain that you are going to investiagte the representation of black people, with SPECIFIC REFERENCE to young black people.

i) Mention the fact that Hollywood began producing movies in the 1910's - a mere 80 years after the abolition of slavery.

ii) Mention also the fact that 'The Golden Age' of Hollywood took place before the civil rights movement of the 1960s, meaning most of Hollywood's classic movies were made before black people were truly seen as 'equals'.

2. Talk about examples of how things used to be in the early days of film (1910's-1950's). There was very littlle representation at all in early British film! You must mention Bogle's '5 stereotypes'. Outline what he meant by this and give examples. 'Stepin Fetchit would be a great example. There are many others. Read the article on racist roles in Hollywood which I have posted.

3. Mention Alvarado 'Ethnicity Theory' which outlines that there are 4 main concepts in the representation of ethnic minorities - Exotic, Dangerous, Piteous, Humourous.

4. Link this to the portrayal of black people in 1970's British TV shows (Love thy neighbour, Rising Damp, 'Til Death us do Part'. These shows attempted to ridicule racist behaviour, but ended up being racist themselves as they drew in racist supporters from people who didn't get the irony, but also because they portrayed the black characters as EXOTIC or HUMOUROUS (you must give examples here), which stereotypes them and makes them a mere point of interest due to their skin colour.

5. Introduce ideas of Stereotyping, Fetishization and Countertyping. Talk about how this is shown in the more modern era. Remember that 'Save the last dance', 'Bullet Boy' and 'kidulthood' are more than 5 years ago, and so can't be included as 'modern' texts. However, they have A LOT in common, and so can be compared really easily as texts with a 'similar direction' from both sides of the Atlantic. Talk about each of these movies and talk about the characters portrayed in them. STLD has more of a selection of 'positive' characters. Tie this in to the idea of Race as a 'Floating Signifier' (Stuart Hall). Derek sees no significance in race and is able to better himself dispite his social situation, whereas Malakai is almost 'punished' for being a stereotype. Talk about how this compares to Kidulthood where fewer of the black characters are making the effort to escape the criminal lifestyle - in fact white characters are 'passing' (Narrative of passing). Those who do not attempt to 'pass' as black (Katie) end up bullied/dead. What does this say about black culture?

6. Go into 'modern era' - first stop 'Adulthood'. How are characters different? White theory - Richard Dyer? Is white shown as a distinct race or just 'otherness' Is Marxism/Floating signifier theory any different? Are charcters still punised for 'passing'?

7. Work chronologically through your 'texts'/ Comment on what the themes are in each text. Talk about how the main characters are presented, and how these representations relate to the theories we have looked at. At the end of each paragraph, give your view on how this represents the social group in question.

Are the representations getting more positive? Negative? Are they simply varying? Do any of the old maxims (Alvarado/ Bogle) still apply today? Has this social group managed to free themselves of stereotype or are they still there?

8. The only problem may arise when you comment on the 'real life' TV clips of David Starkey and Darcus Howe. You have two agendas here. A. How do their views represent real life opinions of black youths? B. How have the BBC chosen to depict this on television?

To sum up: Starkey shows a very negative image of black youths, apparently blaming them for anti-social behaviour. However, it is not all quite so negative. He definitely concurs with the 'floating signifier' way of thinking. It is the how these youths act which makes them anti-social, not their skin colour. When Starkey said that black youths should 'act white', whilst extremely racist in the way he worded it, actually shows that he does not attach importance to skin colour with regards to anti-social behaviour. He believes that this behaviour is learned and conditioned.

What about Darcus Howe? He believes there is a DISTINCT difference between Black and White youths. Link this to White theory - Richard Dyer. He believes that riots were a direct response to the treatment of black youths by the authorities.

Interestingly, whilst both were censored, it was Starkey who was apparently 'shut up' to a greater extent than Darcus Howe. What does this shwo us?

Neither incident were repeated on televison.


Simply make sure you cover a variety of texts (you do not need to mention every single character I have given you a profile for!). And move chronologically through the years, commenting on how black youths were represented in each era. IT DOES NOT MATTER IF TEXTS FROM THE SAME ERA CONFLICT. JUST POINT THIS OUT IN YOUR COMMENTS.

It is also VITALLY IMPORTANT that you balance film and television as equally as possible!

I will try and get a full essay on here in a bit.

NW

Photoshop Terms/Tools

Remember in 1a, you have to talk about how you have 'improved' between AS and A2. Here are two lists. Firstly, a list of  less advanced things which you MAY have used in AS. Then a list of MORE ADVANCED things which you MAY have used in A2.

Less adavanced:

Free-hand selection - Selects objects by following the movement of mouse cursor. (scruffy, not professional looking)

Magic wand selection - Selects chunks of an image based on tone/colour (not very advanced)

Lack of feathering - Cuts out edges very sharply. Does not blend well

Adjust Brightness - Can be used to lighten dark areas of a picture...but can then make other areas too light or grainy

Adjust colour balance - Yes you can change someone's hair colour to blue, but it doesn't look very professional to change the whole picture balance.

Fill in background with 'block colour fill' - Makes it look like you have used MS paint.


More advanced:

Magnetic Lasso Selection - Follows your mouse cursor and clings to nearest definite edge. Much more control over selection.

Adjust tollerance and feather - Tollerance lets you decide how sensitive the tool is. Feather makes the selected edges softer so they blend better with new background.

Dodge tool - Brightens small areas of picture so you don't have to brighten entire image.

Burn tool - darkens small areas. Both of these tools are adjustable for size and definition.

Select colour range - Select a single group of colur so you can change one colour, but allow the rest of the image to remain constant.

Fill background with 'gradient fill' - looks far more professional.

The Last Session!

Just taught a depleted class of Nicole, Charlotte, George, Rebecca (and very briefly Vicky and Joanna) for the very last time! It has been a pleasure teaching you all. It's a shame we never really got a proper 'last lesson', but make sure you pop in and say hi if you're ever around.

Thanks to Rebecca in particular who apparently has messaged you all and told you to get on to the blog. I will say this one more time in block capitals, so you know I mean business:

IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT YOU KEEP CHECKING THIS BLOG RIGHT UP UNTIL AROUND 8PM TONIGHT. I WILL BE PUTTING STUFF ON HERE WHICH WILL HELP YOU. IF YOU DON'T CHECK BACK, YOU ARE NOT GIVING YOURSELF THE BEST CHANCE OF SUCCESS!

I know that some of you appear to have decided already which topic you will answer on in the exam. This is not a great idea really. You should be keeping your options open! I will certainly try my best to prepare you for representation as much as I can.

The next thing I am going to add to the blog is a list of LESS ADVANCED and MORE ADAVANCED photoshop techniques which you could include in order to answer 1A.

Stay tuned!

NW

How to write the INTRO to your REPRESENTATION essay, continued...

If you were to write something like this, it would b a good way in to the more 'modern' film and TV textss which we have studied...

"Whenever a media product or institution decides to depict a particular group or demographic, then that group is being ‘represented’. By its very nature, the media only allows institutions to depict a particular facet or aspect of a particular social group. This process, if not handled carefully, can be damaging. If people from a particular social group are shown in a negative light, or sometimes even if they are shown in a positive light, the media institution can create an image of an entire demographic which is inaccurate or misleading. This can lead to ‘real-life’ stereotyping of individual due to media portrayal. When it comes to the representation of black youths in the media in the 20^th and 21^st centuries, this issue becomes particularly difficult to manage.

This particular social group has been at the centre of many controversies with regards to their treatment and portrayal over recent decades and centuries. When we take into account that Hollywood began producing movies within only 80 years of the abolition of slavery, it is no surprise that there have been many issues regarding the portrayal of black youths, as peoples’ attitudes have changed so dramatically. Perhaps even more important is the fact that Hollywood was in its prime long before the civil rights movement of the 1960s, having already had its ‘golden age’. The fact that so many movies were made long before this adjustment in social attitudes means that it is almost certain that black youths in cinema would be portrayed in a negative and detrimental way.

This is reflected in the fact that, according to film historian Donald Bogle in 1973, black characters in ‘classic’ films could largely be separated into five basic stereotypes, ‘Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks’. The fact that a social group can be categorised into such a small amount of groups is shocking alone. When we look at the definitions of the roles, however, it becomes even more so. A Tom – A kindly, subservient black man who does the will of the white man. A Coon – An often lazy black person who sings and dances, attempting to ‘act the fool’ in order to entertain the white man. A Buck – Someone who is portrayed a sexually dangerous. There are many examples of characters in these roles. Perhaps one of the most famous actors of the ‘Golden Age’ of Hollywood was Lincoln Theodore Monroe – otherwise knwn by the stage name ‘Stepin Fetchit’. Fetchit played roles in numerous films, but most were based around his character ‘The laziest man in the World’, reinforcing the ‘coon’ stereotype as outlined by Bogle. The fact that a character such as this was so popular and so prolific across a period of around half a century demonstrates the attitudes that many felt towards black people at the time. In essence, good for ‘comic relief’, but not for serious roles. One can only imagine the detrimental effect this would have had on attitudes towards young black people in society.

We also have to take into account that when actors such as Stepin Fetchit began working in the movie industry, it would actually have been seen as ‘forward thinking’ by some to even allow a black man to play a black role. In the early phases of Hollywood, it was far more traditional for white actors to ‘black up’, and pretend to be of that race. This, we imagine, simply added to the ridicule with which black characters in film were viewed. That said, it appears that it was still far earlier that black actors became ‘the norm’ in American cinema, with ‘Dark Manhattan’ being the first film to feature an all-black cast in 1937. In the UK, attitudes towards race were largely very different and it was very uncommon to see black characters or actors in British films of this era.

One of the periods of controversy which faced British media in this respect was the portrayal of young black people in comedy television shows during the 1970s…."

An article about early racist roles in Hollwood. Read it!

Midnight Ramble: The Negro in early Hollywood Introduction

The motion picture industry most likely began in Los Angles in 1902 when Thomas L. Tully opened the first theater exclusively for moving pictures. From its earliest days, when movies were thought of as peep shows, the Negro was presented in an unfavorable light.
The year 1915 is a significant date in motion picture history. This is the year of the release of D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, the film version of Thomas Dixon’s pro South, Ku Klux Klan, novel, The Clansman. In terms of advancement of the medium, it must be regarded as one of the most significant films ever made. Subsequent to its release, movies were crude at best, with uneven lighting and quick jerky movements, the acting, melodramatic and exaggerated. From an artistic and technical outlook, it was a masterpiece of conception and structure. Though much has been written about it’s overt racism, it gave rise to the modern narrative film.

The Reconstruction scenes in The Birth of a Nation are especially harsh. The black members of Congress are portrayed as arrogant, lustful, and are shown drinking heavily right on the House floor. They are depicted going about the business of the country coarsely reclining in their congressional chairs, with bare feet plopped upon their desks. When the film was released small riots broke out in Boston, and other cities. A fledging NAACP (formed in 1910) sought in vain to have the film banned. The Nation magazine declared it “improper, immoral, and injurious. . . a deliberate attempt to humiliate ten million American citizens”. The Birth of a Nation was popular for a decade and doubtlessly did much damage to race relations.
Existing as early as 1918 were small studios such as the Norman Studio and Lincoln Pictures. They made dignified pictures in an attempt to shatter the abrogating stereotype of Black Americans. The films they produced came to be known as —Race Movies. Lincoln Pictures, especially was noted for the quality material upon which its films were based. In 1918 Lincoln Pictures released a film entitled The Homesteader, written by a Midwesterner named Oscar Micheaux. Micheaux, sometimes referred to as the Cecil B. De Mill of race movies, went on to produce over 40 films, and was active until his death in 1951. In 1987 he received a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame.

1920s

Except for a hand full of players, the star system had not yet been developed. Black parts, let alone black stars were not favored in the current order. That was all about to change however, as the decade of the 1920s, and the Jazz age approached.
Between The Birth of a Nation, and The Jazz Singer (1927), there were about two dozen films with important black characters or scenes. None were as openly anti-Negro as The Birth of a Nation, but except for one or two, most adhered to the established stereotypes. The decade of the 1920s did however, see a decline in the number of Blackface white actors that dominated the pre-talkies. It should be said here that for reasons unknown the Blackface roles of Al Jolson, (arguably the most famous entertainers of the first half of the twentieth century), were acceptable to black performers¹. Moreover, Jolson demonstrated a genuine respect to black artists.

Interestingly it was The Our Gang comedy series about the adventurers of a group of children produced by Hal Wallis beginning in 1918 that begin to crack the pre-World War I anti-Negro stereotype. Comparatively speaking their record of fair play was well above the average. The original cast included Allen Clayton Hoskins (Farina), who became one of the most popular child stars in Hollywood. He and Sammy Morrison (Sunshine) stood equal and were as much a part of the gang as were the white children.
With the coming of sound, the talking and singing voice of the Negro, would most distinguish him or her from white society. The period from 1927 to 1939 (when the next great anti-Negro film was released) the number of black parts greatly increased.

Lincoln Theodore Monroe Perry—Stepin Fetchit

Hearts in Dixie (1929), was film of major importance for two reasons. First, it was the first Hollywood film to feature an all black cast. Second and more importantly, the film introduced to wider audiences, one of the film industry’s most polemical figures ever —Stepin Fetchit. Born Lincoln Theodore Monroe Perry in Key West Florida in 1902, he took the name Stepin Fetchit from a race horse on which he had won money. Fetchit had been seen earlier in bits, but this was his first starring vehicle. His great talent was used, by the majority to reinforce the stereotype of the lazy good-for-nothing Negro. He was active in films until 1976, and died in 1985. Stepin Fetchit was and continues to be one of the most mystifying characters in motion picture history.

Also released in 1929 was Hallelujah about a black cotton worker who accidentally kills a man and then decides to become a preacher. It too featured an all black cast. Released by MGM, it was director King Vidor’s first talking picture. Hallelujah was the second all-Negro feature produced by a major Hollywood studio. It was vital in the it gave black performers significant roles. Hallelujah had a freshness and truth that was not attained again for thirty years.
An exceptional though controversial film of the early 1930s was The Emperor Jones (1933). The screen version of Eugene O’Neill’s play tsarring Paul Robeson, it’s about a train-porter who becomes emperor of a Caribbean nation. Mainstream critics praised it as one of the best films of the year, while black critics were divided. Some thought it well that a black monarch be chronicled, and for the first time, a white character be presented as his lackey. Others, however emphasized the dubious Pullman-porter, chain-gang, and voodoo scenes as particularly trite. They pointed to the finale which has Robeson, the emperor, groveling on his belly in the spirit-infested jungle.

1930s

Another exceptional film of the early 1930s was Imitation of Life (1934), based on the book by Fannie Hurst. The story contains a sub-plot about a beautiful light skinned black women (Fredi Washington) who tries to pass for white. She is the daughter of a black “mammy” type servant played by Louise Beavers. The two principals were caught in the middle of a journalistic controversy between Fannies Hurst, and Sterling Brown. Brown was professor of the history of the theater at Howard University and film critic for the magazine Opportunity. He charged that the characters of the two women were outrageously slanted. Hurst, on the other hand claimed that she portrayed them with “integrity and accuracy”.
The same period saw films favorable to blacks, Arrowsmith (1931), in which Clarence Brooks portrays a dignified doctor in the West Indies. A reviewer of the Associated Negro Press termed it ”the best legitimate part ever allotted to a colored actor in the history of the movies”². Another was The Singing Kid (1936), where Cab Calloway and Al Jolson pal around as equals. Flying Down to Rio (1933), has Etta Moten singing and dancing the Carioca. The Spirit of Youth (1938), a thinly masked autobiography of Joe Louis did much to propel his popularity among white audiences. With the acceptation of Arrowsmith though, these films must be considered lightweight. Though they at least did nothing to further the prevailing stereotype.

The 1930s also witnessed the further impetus of Oscar Micheaux and the Black independents. A notable film of this group was Dark Manhattan (1937), a gangster film produced by George Randol and Ralph cooper. Beautifully photographed by Roland Price, it was the first all-black cast motion picture with modern story, settings, and costumes. There immediately sprang up a number of companies attempting to make all-Negro pictures in the fashion of Dark Manhattan. However, owing to their lack of experience with the craft and subject matter, these independent efforts blanched in comparison.

Hattie McDanial

So much has been written about Gone With the Wind (1939), suffice is to say that while The Birth of a Nation was openly anti-Negro, GWTW, was at best clandestinely anti-Negro. Some black critics maintained the where The Birth of a Nation ended, Gone With the Wind began. The latter finished the job of removing from the public mind the Northern view of slavery, Civil War, and Reconstruction, and replacing it with the traditional Southern view. Evidence of final victory was the awarding of the Oscar to Hattie McDanial for her role as Mammy in the Margaret Mitchell epic. When asked about her character, McDanial replied, “I’d rather get $7000 a week for playing a maid, than $7 a week for being one!”

Dooley Wilson’s (Sam) in Warner Brother’s Casablanca was probably the beginning of the end of the preponderant Negro stereotype that had dominated Hollywood since its inception. After Rick’s meeting with Ilsa, Sam senses trouble, and his sage advice to the heartbroken Rick, “lets take the car and drive all night, get drunk, go fishing and stay away until she’s gone”, suggests an equality in status. Moreover, it confirms Rick’s deference to Sam, and to Sam’s convictions.

Michael Mills

¹Thomas Cripps, “A Slow Fade To Black: The Negro in American Films 1900-1942”

² Lindsay Patterson, “Black Films, and Film-makers”