Byzantium conventions

We have certain expectations of genre which have to be included in order for us to believe the genre. In the Byzantium trailer there are certain conventions that help us to know that it is a film about vampires, although some aspects of the trailer go against the regular conventions of a vampire film.
In the trailer one of the main parts that has gone against regular conventions is that the vampires do not have fangs but their nails grow into the stereotypical fang shape and that is how they get the blood instead of them biting their victims. this helps the film to stand out against all the other vampire films out there and suggest that it has something new and different to it and it is not the same as all the others.
The film trailer shows that in the film there is hunting involved although it is a different kind of hunting that what you would expect from vampire film as in the trailer it shows that the women are hunting their male prey whereas in most vampire films it is male vampires hunting their female victims, this goes against the regular conventions of a vampire film.
Some of the Characters in the film are wearing the regular kind of clothes that you would expect vampires to be wearing for example one of the main women in the film is dressed in a lot of grand clothes which suggest that vampires are of a higher status as they are wearing clothes that show a higher status in society.the young girl in the film has a lot of clothes that help her to hide as she wears clothes that are big and she can cover herself up with a hood and she also wears more modern clothes which is the opposite to her mother who wears a lot of old fashioned grand clothes that can be quite reveling as she is more open in the vampire world.
The film is set in both a city and in an isolated location of the beach which shows a cross over of two worlds, as in the films it suggests that the girl is growing up and starting her vampire life but it is like she wants to try to be normal but also be a vampire at the same time and this is backed up with the two different locations as the locations are completely different. The regular convention of a vampire film is that it is set in a isolated and in a forest or in another kind of isolated location which would be the beach in this film.

question 1-Key points

Raymond Williams- 'culture is ordinary'
sub-cultures
the elite
F R Leavis
The Canon
Mass communication
popular culture-inclusive
high culture-exclusive
cultural practices
Richard Hoggard- 'Dumbed down' nature of popular culture. popular culture requires no intellectual engagement.
Blumler and Katz- uses and gratification theory 4 reasons for popular culture:
1.escapism
2.personal relationships
3.personal identification
4. surveillance
Pierre Bourdieo- 'being cultured makes your more educated, therefore have more authority and credibility'
Storey-'to be culturally worthwhile it has to be difficult'
transcendental- goes beyond space and time
Rituals
Mathew Arnold-'the best that is thought and known'

My bedroom

My bedroom is cream with all of the furniture being white and silver. My room is a medium size rectangle with a large window on the right side when you walk into the room.

The first thing you see when you walk into my room is my mirror as it is straight in front of the door as you walk in on the opposite wall. It is a full length white mirror with wooden carved ornate floral frame that is painted white. This shows that it is a girls room as no boys would have a  floral carved mirror in their rooms as it would be too girly.
My wardrobe, Chest of draws and Desk are all from the same company and are wooden and and decorative to blend in with the mirror. They are all quite girly pieces of furniture that you wouldn't see in a male room. they all have a country feel to them which links in with my bed sheets.

My bed is a low bed with a metal frame and the frame itself does not suggest a gender but the bed covers i have on do as they are usually floral and blue and white. The colour blue is usually classed as being a boyish colour but my bed sheets have either pale baby blue flowers on or it has electric blue in a floral pattern. the floral patterns of my bed sheets. The floral bed sheets blend in with my furniture as they all give my bedroom a country feel with the wooden furniture, this i think represents the way i want to live in the future, as i would love to live in the countryside.

My shelves that are above my bed do not blend in with my bedroom as they were already there when we moved in and i already have all of my furniture. my shelves are full of pictures in ornate frames that blend in with my mirror and furniture. I also have a lot of different ornaments from different parts of the world that my brother has brought back for me from his travels. I like to display all of them because it shows a part of my identity that i want to go traveling in the future, there are different statues of people from south Africa and Buddha statues from Thailand that my brother has brought back for me. I also have a mummified mummy in a tomb that my brother gave to me from when he went to Egypt. All of my pictures that i have on my shelves are of people that mean something to me, for example i have pictures of me and my grampy. I also have a picture of me and my best friends and prom date in frames because those people mean a lot to me and this shows some of the people that i Value. 

The key concepts

Codes: Rules that are set by a culture but are not the law. codes relate to all aspects of a culture.

Communication: a process through which meanings are exchanged.

Context: the situation within which communication takes place.

Culture: a particular way of life which expresses certain meanings and values.

Identity: the sense we have of ourselves, which we then ‘represent’ ‘elsewhere’: a
person’s social meaning.

Power: control and influence over other people and their actions.

Representation: refers to the construction in any medium (especially the mass
media) of aspects of ‘reality’ such as people, places, objects, events, cultural
identities and other abstract concepts. Such representations may be in speech or
writing as well as still or moving pictures. (Daniel Chandler’s definition).

Value: the worth, importance, or usefulness of something to somebody


http://filestore.aqa.org.uk/subjects/AQA-2625-W-TRB-OGASKT.PDF

coursework

 Eat drink and be merry. What my celebration meals say about me. –

·          

Celebrations meals i have- birthdays, Christmas, achievements

its important to celebrate achievements because it will increase your self esteem and it helps let people know that you are proud of them. 

The happiest days of my life?  School and me. –

Who Am I

I am my brother who tells me to grow up
I am my cousin who always tells me I can do whatever I want
I am my mother who tells me I should be more confident in myself
I am Linwood Barclay who is my favourite author
I am my friends who I don't get to see
And the ones I do see
I am the music that cheers me up
And the music that makes me sad

I am who I am because of everyone

What I Think Culture Is

I think that culture is everything that you are surrounded by like people, sights, smells common interests with the people around you. I think that everyone sees culture differently, so it means different things to everyone, i feel that is the reason why some people agree with what is seen as 'high culture' and some don't. The way people are brought up and who they are surrounded, where they live has a huge impact on how people see culture. If one person thinks a piece of art isn't really art, and someone else does i don't think that makes a difference because a piece art doesn't have a set definition and i feel that culture is the same. Culture is what people interpret it to be. I personally think that high culture should be things that include a range of different cultures that everyone in the world can relate to because what someone in England relates to may be completely different to what someone in Azerbaijan would relate to. High culture should embrace different cultures and different people and people from all over the world should have say in what is high culture rather than a few people from one area.