Reception Theory

The Reception Theory was developed by Stuart Hall. this considered how text were encoded with meaning from the producers and then decoded by the audiences  Reception Theory: The way a person or individual receives and interprets text. 

Preferred reading

Preferred reading this is when the producer’s uses codes of conduct that draw upon and support the audience expectations. That lead the audiences to accept the dominant values within the text.

Negotiated reading 

 Negotiating reading is when an individual has the choice to accept the preferred reading or weather they chose not to accept it. 

Oppositional reading

Oppositional reading is when someone watches or reads a text, but the individual completely rejects the reading. 

Aberrant reading

Aberrant reading is where the audience interprets a completely different meaning then intended by the film make, people who just don't it.

why might the theory be used to analyse gangster film. 

Reception Theory can be used to analyse gangster films and find out how individual receives and interprets the text. It helps the individual view and interpret conventions used such as drugs and violences and weather they chose to accept the encoded massages that are put in there by the directors. 

   Apply the theory to city of god and scarface, what messages do each of the films convey about: Money and power, crime, violence and women. 

Scarface and City of god

Money:  In gangster films money is used as one of the conventions but money is used to show easy money. e.g: selling drugs. The more money you have the more power you seem to have that was how it worked in scarface and City of god, Tony Montana used to be nothing but as he got more money, his power raised. Lil Ze and Benny had nothing but as they planned to take over all the drug business afterwards,their power rose.

Power: Power is the main objective in a gangster film and that could be because power represents respect.

Crime: Conveyed in a calm/ glamorous way of selling or doing drugs 

Violence:  Violence is used  as a convention in order to get the audience to understand the genre of the film. But violence in scarface and city of god is power, the power comes from the guns they carry to cause violences, suffering and death.

women: are used as a sex objects or as a love interest for the main characters, because the women in the film don't have any power and there for cant speak for themselves.

 what are the different ways the audience might respond to these messages 

the way the audience respond to these message depends on which of the four categories they fit into.  Everyone interprets the text in different way, that is what a reception theory is. some people might interpret it the way it is meant, others might ignore it and come up with a completely different answer from it and others might find a hidden interprets that isn't there.  Not everyone interprets everything in the way they should. some people might feel like they can relate because of what they went through in life and interpret it as the story of their life.  

David Allan---Soundtrack Production

                                                              Soundtrack Production for Phone Call Dubbing  


For this task i had to work with Isabella Francis and the task was to choose a film and use dubbing, we didn't have to make up our own script but we had to rerecord the words.
the voiceover was synchronous with the video creating mood and meaning for the video.
in our recording the only diegetic things was the voices we recored.
Looping is used when you want to you want to rerecord something, if a mistake is made, it can easily be undone by looping, which is just recording the words over the clip. phone calls tend to sound different when your watching a while, it sounds a bit far away then the normal sound and in order for us to do that we had to use Bandpass Filter. Bandpass filter changes the level of voices so that it sounds like a real phone call. We use Reaper to create the Bandpass Filter and as we changed the voice into a phone voice, i also changed my voice so that i could sound like a man.
After i did the Bandpass Filter with the voice and i changed my voice, i deleted all of the background noises and all of the things that were not needed, so at the end all i had left was the voice over between Bella and me.
I put the voice over into Premiere so that i could use the real video and use the dubbing we made and add both of them together. it was hard to use dubbing because of the way the actress was talking and it took time but i ended up editing everything together somehow.

Improvement 

The voice over turned out great with the video and i didn't think it needs any improvement at all,  the use of dubbing fit in right with the video and i think the only improvement that is needed is the sound of wind in the background.

City of God Gangster Genre Study Journal Final (3)

                       Gangster Genre Study Journal 3 

Narrative: Summary of plot.
City of God is a 2002 Brazilian film directed by Fernando Meirelles released in its home country in 2002 and worldwide in 2003. The story of the film is loosely based on real events. 

The movie begins a chicken escaping and as an armed gang chases after it the chicken comes across a boy named Rocket who believes that the gang wants to kill him. The movie then flashes back ten years earlier, to tell the story of how he got himself into that position.

The story of “the tender trio’ one of them being Rocket’s brother Goose. The tender Trio are not the type of gang that kill but instant pull small crimes like holdups and the money they get, they split with the citizens of city of god. Lil Dice convinces the rest of his group to rob a motel and the people living there. The rest of his gang agree but he is left as a look out, this makes him feel mad and he shoots a warning shot to make the trio think the police are coming and then proceeds to slaughter everyone inside the motel.  The film fast-forwards showing lil Dice who is now known as Lil Ze as a drug lord.

 Lil Ze humiliates a peace loving man named Knockout Ned by raping his girlfriend. Lil Z feeling weird because he didn’t kill Knockout Ned, comes back to do just that but ends up killing Ned's uncle and younger brother. Ned turns violent and sides with Carrot. After killing one of Li'l Ze's men, Ned starts a war between the two rival, one where everyone who lives in the City of God doesn’t know what to make of. Ned ends up being on the new and newspapers after getting shot Jealous of Ned's notoriety in the newspapers, Li'l Zé has Rocket take photos of himself and his gang that, unknown to Rocket, are taken by a reporter and published in the daily paper. Rocket then mistakenly fears for his life believing that Li'l Zé will want to kill him for it. Instant Li’l Zé is pleased with his newfound fame.

Going back to where the film first began with the chicken being chased and Rocket tries to catch it but is startled by Li'l Ze’s request that he take a picture of the gang. Before he can, however, a gunfight ensues between the two gangs, but is broken up by the police. A boy who has infiltrated his gang to avenge his father, who was killed by Ned during a bank robbery, kills Ned. Li'l Zé and Carrot are arrested and Carrot is left in the van and taken away. Li'l Zé is shaken down for money but finally released, all of which is secretly photographed by Rocket. After the cops leave couple of kids come to him and open fire and killing him in retribution for him killing one of their gang earlier in the film. Rocket takes pictures of Li'l Ze's dead body and goes to the newspaper.

Narrative techniques used 
City of God is a multi-strand film that based around three different stories.  the three main stories are "The Tender Trio" "Lil Dice aka Lil Ze" and the last one is "Knockout Ned" there are small stories in between the three main ones. the film is full of multi strand stories which means is not a single strand.
the film is alternative narrative because it starts with equilibrium, it doesn't start slow or with introduction, the film jumps straight into the point and starts off with a disruption and flashes back to tell the stories of the rest of the film. 

The film has a lot of climax involved, i think the climax comes from the fact that the film is a gangster film involving all of the conventions that normal gangster films have, the whole climax comes from there.
one of the climax in the film was the finally shootout. the build up was when the chicken was being chased and Rocket was stuck in between Lil Ze's gang and the Police. shots started between Knockout Ned and Lil Ze and everything started going crazy...

another climax involved Benny’s death,  what made it a climax for me was the lighting used, it was like flashes so you don’t see the whole scene but as we saw the gun and the music used it was a build up until we see Benny lying on the floor and his girlfriend is screaming.

Another climax was Knock out Ned’s death as Otto layed dying we saw his life flash and as he grabbed  a gun , the build up was whether  he will do it or not but he didn’t up shooting him.

Enigma

There isn’t much enigma involved in the film since everyone died but i guess the one question I think the audience would be wondering is at the end of the film as the runt walked off they were planning on killing everyone to take over the drug world, I guess what the audience would be wondering is ‘would the runts end up like lil Ze and knock out Ned’. 

Genre

City of god is a gangster film and the codes and conventions used in the film can be used to identify the genre of the film. 

One of the main conventions of gangster film is the weapons you used; the main weapons are normally guns. Guns used show that the film will be violent. City of god involved a lot of guns, all of the teenagers and kids have guns, and this makes it very conventional.

Another convention used is love interest: this convention is not used in every gangster film but it is often used in most film. In city of god this convention was used for many of the characters for example the first story involved Shaggy who fall in love with a girl called Berenice, Knock out Ned’s girl who was rapped by Lil Ze. Benny was also with his girlfriend Angelica. 

The other convention used drugs, the characters were not taking the drugs but they were running business with it and Lil Ze and Benny planned  to take over everyone business because they got jealous of everyone wearing chains and driving new cars . Drugs and guns always ended up involving criminal activity which would get the police involved which is another convention but the police turned out to bad themselves.

There are a lot of conventions used in the film that tell the audience what type of genre the film is. The film also involved a lot of different gang.

Representation

The children in city of god are represented as grownups, they don’t go to school so they can’t read or write and the life they see before them involving guns and violence is all they know.

A little boy once said to Knock out Ned ‘Listen man, I smoke, I snort... I've been begging on the street since I was just a baby. I've cleaned windshields at stop lights. I've polished shoes, I've robbed, I've killed... I ain't no kid, no way. I'm a real man. Because of the life he lived this little boy has done things that make him think he is a man when in fact he is just a little boy. He just wants to be part of something; he wants to belong, I think this is what all of the children feel and that is maybe why they all start to join the gangs between Knock out Ned and Lil Ze.  The children don’t have the chance to choose the right path, they all seem to think killing and criminal activity is the only path they have.

The teenagers in city of god are represented as the adults in the film, adults who want respect and power and would do whatever it takes to get it.

The problem of wanting respect and power is that sometimes you end up losing the plot. For example Knock out Ned wanted ravage for what happened to his girlfriend and family but he also wanted the respect Lil Ze took away from him and he seem to be a nice guy when we first met and he had rules which one that no one dies and he ended up breaking his own words and losing the plot, everything, all the money and power got into his head.

Knock out Ned was meant to be the hero of the city of god that is how it seems in the beginning but it went wrong. Lil Ze was in a roll he never got hurt and he had been lucky and he was told he will stay that way as long as he never had sex with the necklace on but he break it as by rapping a girl.

The way men and women are represented in city of god is stereotypical.

 Men have the power and respect whereas the women are just there but it is clearly women don’t have anything to do with the lifestyle of the men.

Men have power by selling drugs and carrying guns. For example everyone is scared of lil Ze because she has power and the reason he has power is because he has a gun, the power comes from the gun and the men in the film all carry guns and sell drugs, therefore making them powerful.

Women are represented as victims and sexual object and sometimes strong. Berenice was strong women she knew what she wanted and she went for it. She even nearly got shaggy out of the life style he was living but he died.

Shorty’s wife was a victim because she didn’t getting any loving from her husband and her friend kept telling her what she was missing so she started to look for men who would give her the loving she so clearly need and as she got caught, her husband beat her up with a shovel and buried her alive in their own back yard.

Angelica is the sexual object in the film as she dates a lot of the guys in the film and i would say that she is quite clever and strong in her own way.

Target Audience: Who are they? What will they find appealing?

The Target audience for city of god is alternative because it uses subtitles, that use of subtitles might put of some people even if the storyline is interesting. also the fact that the film is in another language, the fact that the film doesn't use real actor but young people that are unknown. the fact that kids are carrying guns and also the film was main released in french and Brazilian all of this could be the reason why the film is alternative. 

The gender that the film city of god is aimed at is Both female and male, i think it is aimed at both genders because city of god had both strong male and female leaders. 
females might like city of god because of the strong females leaders and the way they take charge of the men for example Berenice was one of the first main female protagonist that we were introduced too and she convinced Shaggy to get out of the lifestyle he living and from the moment she was introduced she was strong until the beginning to the end. 
males might found city of god appealing because of the all of the males whose stories are told, they might even be able to relate to them. 
The Location of city of god is Brazil and the language it uses is portuguese. the people who speak portuguese might find this film to be interesting.     
Ethnicity: the ethnicity for city of god would be Brazilian and black people, the reason why i think the film is aimed at black people is because all of the character were black. 

·   what i think the audience would found appealing is the multi storyline, The realist part of the film, the characters and The series of events. 

·   Violence: Your opinion on the use of violence in specific scenes

every gangster film needs to have violence in but i somehow enjoyed but didn't enjoy it at the same time, i enjoyed the storyline but i didn't enjoy the kids carrying guns and shooting at each other.
the use of violence was just right Fernando Meirelles wanted to show what life was like in city of god and i think he did an amazing job with the use of violence.
The best violence scene i enjoyed the most was when Lil Ze came back to kill Knock out Ned but he ended killing his family and Knock out Ned fought back giving the people of 'city of god' hope that all is not loss and for a bit in the film it was like the was a hero in the film, that Knock out Ned would turn out to be the hero.

The second scene i liked was the death of Both Knock out Ned and Lil Ze, what i really enjoyed about both of this scene was the half of the film was a build between these two characters just fighting each other and both of their people dying and they didn't even ended killing each other. The fact that Lil Ze was killed by the Runts  and Knock out Ned ended getting killed by Otto was unexpected and it was actually a good ending because it made it unconventional. normally the bad and the good always ended killing each other but in city of god it didn't happen like that and i thou it was a great ending.

lock,stock and two smoking barriels-

Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels was written and directed Guy Ritchie.

Narrative
 Lock, Stock and two smoking barrels is about four friends, Bacon, Soap, Tom and Eddie decide to put together money for a high-stakes card game in the hopes of winning easy money. Aided by Barry "the Baptist", Harry's personal bodyguard and counsellor, the game is fixed so that Eddie, the card shark representing the group, loses to Harry and is forced to pay a £500,000 debt within one week, citing the loss of fingers and Eddie's father's bar if he fails to pay. To Eddie's fortune, and the dismay of his friends, all four of the group are tasked with honouring this debt, as they were all responsible for fronting the stake money. Harrys loyal and violent debt collector, Big Chris - who often brings his son and apprentice, Little Chris, to his work - is assigned to collect the payment on the due date.

After several days and no ideas to come up with the money, Eddie returns home and overhears his neighbours, a gang of thieves known for robbing drug dealers, planning a heist on some marijuana growers supposedly loaded with cash and drugs. Eddie relays this information to the group, intending for all of them to rob the neighbours as they come back from their heist, therefore solving the debt. Tom uses his connection with an underground dealer, known as Nick "the Greek", to provide them with guns for the job, and to find someone to help them move the drugs. Nick then manages to acquire a pair of antique shotguns, and arrange a deal with Rory Breaker, a gangster and sociopath, to purchase the stolen weed.

Prior to the card game, a pair of lowlife criminals, Gary and Dean, were hired by Barry to rob a bankrupt millionaire for Harry, who wanted a specific pair of antique shotguns from the stolen pile for his personal collection. The two guns that Harry wanted, however, were the ones that Gary and Dean sold prematurely to Nick after the robbery. An enraged Barry then threatens the two into getting them back.

The neighbours' heist goes underway; Dog, the leader of the gang, learned of the weed chemists from one of the members, and uses his connections to the group to catch them off guard. Despite having a gang member killed by his own Bren Gun, and an incriminating encounter with a traffic warden, the job is otherwise a success. Unfortunately as they come back to the hideout, the four friends ambush the neighbours and take the loot, who later return that night to stash the goods next door, and then celebrate with a wild night of drinking.

The various characters finally collide when Rory discovers that the weed he was going to purchase was in fact his; the weed chemists that were robbed were under his employ. Rory interrogates Nick into revealing where the four friends live, and uses one of the chemists to identify the robbers. That same morning, Dog has become furious at having been cheated and, during a tirade, he launches one of his men into a wall, who discovers (through the hole he makes as a result) various sound recording equipment; Dog realizes that his neighbours were the ones who robbed him, and has the men prepare to ambush the friends in the flat as he takes the antique shotguns and counts the money. Gary and Dean call Nick, who (in frustration) directs them to the same address in their search for the antique shotguns, while Big Chris and his son depart to collect the debt, and the four friends drive home from the bar.

Rory and his gang assault the flat and enter a shootout with the neighbours, resulting in the deaths of all but Dog and the lone chemist to survive the slaughter, with the latter taking off with the marijuana. Dog is mugged by Big Chris of the shotguns and money during his escape, Gary and Dean stealthily follow Big Chris, and the four friends finally return to the flat, shocked by the carnage and the missing loot. Big Chris then gives the guns and cash to Harry, and as he returns to his car he encounters Dog threatening his son, who wants him to get the loot back from Harry. Desperate to get the guns, Gary and Dean attack Harry and Barry at their office, realizing who they were at the last minute before killing each other in another violent shootout. The four friends soon arrive to find another scene of carnage, and take the opportunity to re-steal the debt money, mystified by their strange fortune. Big Chris then crashes into their car to disable Dog, and after brutalizing him with his car door, he takes the debt money back from the unconscious friends, only to find his employer dead, and Tom just about to make off with the antique shotguns, which he'd briefly paused to examine.

The remaining friends were arrested, but were declared innocent after the traffic warden from earlier identified the neighbours bodies as the prime suspects. The four reunite at Eddies fathers bar, and decide to have Tom get rid of the only evidence linking them to all the bloodshed the shotguns. After Tom leaves, Big Chris arrives to bid them farewell, and gives them a catalogue on antique guns. Big Chris then leaves, having kept the debt money for himself and his son. A quick perusal of the book reveals that the shotguns the four had bought for the job were each worth a fortune, and so they desperately try to call Tom. The film ends in a cliff hanger when Toms cell phone, stuffed in his mouth, starts ringing as he hangs over the side of a bridge, preparing to drop the shotguns into the River Thames.


Narrative techniques used 
Lock, Stock and Two smoking barrels has multi-strand storyline but it also has a main she tory about the four friends who lose money on a fixed card game, but end up being indebted to Harry. the four friends are the protagonist of the movie and the rest of the people are part of the story but its mainly about the friends. all of the characters are tied together forming a full storyline. the fact that all of the characters end up getting involved with each other is interesting.

the film also has alternative narratives....the events that happen in the film all happen in order, in the beginning we see the four friends coming together and putting all the money they have together for the card game then we see the friends lose the game because the game is fixed and then the friends try to get their money back and the whole problem ends up being solved in unconventional way.  the reason why I say would the film has an alternative is because everything has order even the short stories In the film fit in order with the main story.

Would I say this film is enigma?
the biggest ever because of the way the film ended. thought out the whole film, the friends were trying to win the money back and that didn't work because Big Chris took the money but he brought back something even better and show them how much the guns their have cost but it was already two late as they told tom but get rid off it and as they realised what mistake they were about to make, they called Tom to tell him but he was in an awkward position as he was leaning over a bridge trying to pushing the guns into the river then the phone rings and he is stuck on weather he should answer the phone or if he should push the guns over, without showing us what he is going to do the film ends. the film ends in cliff-hanger leaving us asking ourselves what he is going to do.
will he answer the phones?
will he throw the guns away?
will  he end up falling in themselves?

the film has a lot of equilibrium that gets in the way of the protagonist from meeting their goals. after the friends rob the neighbours and they have the money, the money ends up being stolen from them and again as they find the money Big Chris hits the car and he takes the money and at the end of the film just when they found out how much the guns were worth but they already told Tom to get rid of them. this is example of equilibrium. those 4 friends who want nothing more then to gain back the money their lost in a fixed card of games but so many things get in the way that it is hard for them to meet their goal.

Climax is used in every film and Lock, Stock and two smoking barrels had one of the best
 climax. even though the film has a lot of climax used to build suspense, the one that I thought was amazing is when the four friends found out that Tom still had the guns, the guns being the last evidence that could be used against them and the boys make him feel stupid and silly for keeping them in his car so they tell him to get rid of it.
Tom drives his car and when he comes across a bridge, stops to throw it away and but the guns fall in the side of the bridge.
As the three reminding friends are at the pub having drinks Big Chris comes in and tells them that he is keeping the money for himself and his child (Little Chris) and gives them antique guns catalogue, inside the catalogue is the two Barrels that they told Tom to get rid off and as they read they found out the guns are worth a fortune.
Tom’s mobile phone starts ringing as he hangs over the side of a bridge, preparing to drop the shotguns into the River and he has to decide whether to answer the phone or drop the guns into the river. The films ends in cliff-hanger  ending on a climax as we don't see what he does. this makes the audience, myself include feeling lot of annoyance because the whole film was building up to the four friends getting the money back and now is in their hands we wont know what happened.


Genre
The codes and conventions used in the film tell us and the audience what genre the film is. what we expect to see in a gangster film is a lot of gun violence or just violence and Lock, Stock and two smoking barrels doesn't disappoint because they are a lot of violence used in  this film for example.

Plank arrives at Winston's and weasels his way in, but the metal gate is locked. He draws his shotgun on Charles, who promptly faints. Dog and the others hear the commotion, and run inside - one of them is carrying a huge gun! They manage to get the keys off the floor, but can't get the gate open. Winston, Willie, and J shoot the robbers with an air gun from the staircase, and the man with the Bren gun returns fire. Dog is angry and tells him not to fire the gun again, then he blows Charles' toes off and threatens to kill him if the gate isn't unlocked. Winston tells Willie to hide upstairs, and he and J let the robbers in.

Willie slices the man's arm up, but doesn't kill him.

 The driver of the getaway van is getting a ticket from a traffic warden, so he knocks him out and throws him in the back of the van.

Dog orders his cronies to gather the cash and weed, and makes plans to dispose of the growers. Unfortunately for them, Gloria, who's been asleep on the couch the whole time, hops up, grabs the Bren gun, and opens fire. She manages to kill the injured crook, but Dog and Plank survive. Dog knocks her out

there are a lot of great violence scenes involved to show that the film is a gangster but violence isn't the only thing involved in a gangster film. there are a lot conventions used in gangster films such as  Drugs, Money, Love Interest, law enforcement ......etc..
Drugs were involved in the film, there are even guys who look after it and grow it.
Money seemed to be the main convention of this film since it seem it was all about finding money and losing.
Law enforcement are always used in gangster films as a way to create a balance because you cant go around doing illegal things such as crimes, murders and drugs and get away with it. I think it is a way to say that no matter how good life is you will always get caught.


Representation: How are men/women portrayed?
men and women are represented differential in the film. men are seen as the protagonist in the film, some seem to be in a suit and some are dressed in casual clothing but most men have jobs weather is illegal or not. there are a lot of men involved in the film and not a lot of women.
Men seems to be the theme of the film . almost the entire film revolves around the male characters and there is a definitely a masculine primacy within the film. an example of this is in the strip bar where topless females are dancing in the background as they are provided a service to the males. the camera focus is also burred as they dance in the background. this makes the females even more inferior within this male dominated society.
 
there was one women who seem to have the respect of the males and that was slight older women who was dealing the cards and the males around the table seem to listen and respect her.
but there was also Gloria, who was the love interest of one off character, Gloria just seem to be a lifeless person, she seems to be high on something and she seems to need help with just standing up as her boyfriend kept his arm around her to keep her steady.
 
women seem to be just there in the film for the sake of being there, I don't think there was a need for them, the film would have seem been great without them.

  Target Audience: Who are they? What will they find appealing?
  As the certificate of the film is 18, I would say that the target audience for the film is 18+ considering the genre of the film and storyline and the actors involved it has a specific adult audience and the film includes drugs and gang related issues. the strong language and the strong violence used in the film make it inappropriate for anyone under the age of 18.
Gender: the gender for this film is aimed at young males, the reason why I think that this is because I think it is the kind of films that would attract young adults, I think young males might be able to relate to the people in the films not the storyline but the people init.
The ethnicity of the film is British people because I don't think that American people or many other people understand or get the jokes that the characters are making.
I think it would appeal to both black people and white people because the film has both strong white and black male lead.
the location is England, the location targets the audiences because the film has a lot of strong English actors.

 Violence: Your opinion on the use of violence in specific scenes 
 I found the film enjoyable due to the amount of comedy involved and also the violence involved.
thought out the film I was mostly laughing how the four were meant to be friends but always made of each other, I found this funny because it is exactly how it happens in real life...the scene I enjoyed the most was the Gloria scene because women seem to be useless object in this film that when Gloria woke up and started shooting, I loved it maybe because am a women or maybe because I love seeing a women kicking ass but I loved the scene until it last which wasn't long since she got kicked out .
 
I also liked the way the camera was used in an effective way in this film. a wide range of angles are used. from long shots to detailed close up shots.