I, Daniel Blake

I, Daniel Blake is a movie about the benefits system and the lives of people affected by it. It gained controversy from conservatives who argued that the film was "not a documentary" and is "inaccurate". However, Ken Loach, the movie's director, said “I challenge anyone to find a single word in that film that isn’t true.”.

The plot of the movie is about a 59 year old widower carpenter who was left unable to work after having a major heart attack. Despite this, he is classed as fit for work and forced to return to return to work or have his benefits cut. While at the Jobcentre he meets a young single mum who's also struggling financially.

The movie is directed by Ken Loach, a left-wing director who is well known for making other controversial, eye-opening movies. It was produced by Rebecca O'Brien and starred Dave Johns and Daniel Blake and Hayley Squires as Katy, the single mum Daniel befriends. The movie was made on a low budget and many people starring in the movie were not actors and actually people from these businesses. For example, the character Ann from Jobcentre actually used to work at that very same Jobcentre. This is likely done to add a higher sense of realism. It came out in 2016 and despite expectations, reached a wider audience and gained worldwide attraction.

This attention also came with its fair share of controversy, with many conservative politicians and right wing audiences calling it inaccurate and inaccurate representations of how Jobcentre works. The Daily Mail have written multiple articles about how it romanticises the people on benefits and that they are actually "scroungers". However, Loach has argued back that every part of the movie is based off of case studies in Newcastle and that not one part of the movie is inaccurate. Despite the controversy, overall the movie received positive responses, especially from people who have been or are in the same position as Daniel Blake.

I, Daniel Blake won a total of eleven awards, including a BAFTA award, two British Independent Film awards and a Palme d'Or.

Very present themes of the movie are poverty and the benefits system. It also has strong themes of family. It is set in Newcastle and, while a mostly white cast, does have characters of other ethnicities, including the neighbour. The main target audience is middle class people, as this is a way of educating them on a world they may not have been exposed to before. A secondary audience would also be working class people who can relate to what is happening in the movie.

The movie 

Video games case study: Assassin's Creed 3 : Liberation

Text

The genre of the game is action-adventure, stealth. The avatar you play as is Aveline, the first female assassin in the series. With her you can switch between three outfits: an assassin's outfit, a slave disguise, and a posh dress. The game is initially set in 1700s New Orleans, but you are able to travel to other places later in the game. The controls are more or less the same as the rest of the Assassin's creed games, but slightly changed to adapt to PS Vita. For example, if you wanted to run in an Assassin's creed game using a PS3 controller, you would have to hold both the R1 and X buttons, but to run with the PS Vita controls, you only have to hold down the R2 button. There was already a previous Assassin's Creed game released on the PSP, so this was the second AC game released as a portable game. However, the controls were more reminiscent of those on a console game and it was later released for some consoles in HD The multiplayer options of the game was extremely limited and was essentially a mini game of dispatching troops to nodes on a map, this was a far cry from the mechanics of the single player game and was a disappointment to fans. The limitations of the game was mostly down to the PS Vita's limits such as poor graphics compared to the mainline releases and laggy visuals with frequent framerate drops. However the game also had Issues with the AI of NPC's glitching and not responding correctly to the player.

The company that develops and publishes the assassins creed franchise is Ubisoft, a french game company headquartered in Montreuil, France they own multiple successful video game franchises such as Assassins Creed, Far Cry, Watch Dogs which are all story driven Action Adventure games as well as more pure FPS games such as Rainbow Six siege and Tom Clancy's: The Division.

Fay's holiday homework

Five slogans for products recently advertised:
-I'm lovin' it -- McDonald's
-Finger lickin' good -- KFC
-Beanz meanz Heinz -- Heinz
-Maybe she's born with it, maybe it's Maybelline -- Maybelline
-Just do it -- Nike


One advert recently that used shock tactic was the NHS antibiotics advert. This was shocking because it has a very cute, cartoon style to it with a catchy jingle, that abruptly takes a dark turn halfway through when it begins listing off the dangers of overusing antibiotics.



The very sudden juxtaposition catches the audience off guard, and incredibly dark implications of disease and death being told to use by cartoon pills is where the shock value comes from.


Stereotypes used in advertising:
-men being the bread winners
-women staying at home, looking after the kids and doing the housework
-teenage girls only care about looks


An example of intertextuality in radio advertising would be the money supermarket adverts. In 2018, they starred the characters He-Man and Skeletor, from the 80's cartoon He-Man. This is a very obvious example of intertextuality, and due to how recognisable it is has even been used in the radio advertising.

Different uses for music in adverts:
-to set the tone
-add to the message, E.G. loud swelling music for an inspirational advert
-to add emotion
-for comedic effect

Recently, Chris Hemsworth, a well-known and well-liked actor, appeared in a Hugo Boss aftershave advert. He is fit and charming, so having him in the advert gives people something they want to aspire to, and if he wears Hugo Boss aftershave, then they should too.

Examples of reward and punishment persuasion in current advertising:
- Virgin media- the reward of switching to them is that you get a faster broadband than any other company could offer you. The punishment is that if you don't switch, you'll have slower broadband.
-Money Supermarket- the reward is that you feel "epic" for using it. The punishment is that if you don't use it, you won't get this feeling.
-Hipp organic- the reward is giving your baby wholesome natural food. The punishment is that if you don't buy it, you risk giving your child artificial food.