Usually Italian American women have a stereotype and are seen to take the expressive role in the family as the cook, housewives and looking after the children and are in a patriarchy based family. Their norms and values are based around familial ideology. The jersey shore girls show how the new generation has changed their values in that they are more promiscuous but they also try and keep the old fashion values in that they still want to have children and want to get married. Family is very important to all the cast even though the boys go out clubbing looking for girls to sleep with, they still want a nice Italian girl to bring back to their parents who will look after them, which shows they have mixed old fashioned values with their Guido lifestyles. The male gaze theory can be seen in Jersey Shore because we see the four girls in stereotypical roles that woman play, most of the girls are seen as the sluts. This can be seen in episode 3 season 3 when Snooki repeatedly keeps asking Vinny to sleep with her while she is drunk, she is being represented as a slut to the audience which is accepted as a norm which makes us believe that this is the way a women’s role should be shown. Also with Deena who is trying to sleep with Mike ‘the situation’ http://www.videoweed.es/file/71f5d803bfd87.Another role the girls have taken is housewife role by trying to cook Sunday dinner which in a stereotypical Italian American role for women but in the jersey shore house it’s the men who cook which is the complete opposite, they make fun of the girls when they try and cook and don’t think of them as real Italian women http://www.novamov.com/video/147caebb6d3a8 (from 20 minutes). Jenny “JWOOW” can be seen to take the mother role because she always looks after Snooki when she becomes drunk and tried to help her when she got arrested for disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct, and criminal annoyance of others. This shows that the male gaze theory is relevant to jersey shore because in all 4 seasons the girls have taken one of these roles that Laura Mulvey talks about as a stereotypical role. http://www.mtv.co.uk/shows/jersey-shore/video/jersey-shore-216-clip-2  (ADD virgin whore dichotomy & not finished )

The word Guido can be seen as a racial slur to Italian Americans the same way the ‘N word’ is towards black people, the word became widespread because of the influence of the show and became a frequent phrase to describe Italian Americans which most dislike, but the 8 housemates describes themselves as Guido’s and Guidettes they see it as a lifestyle to be proud of. Typical things associated with being a Guido is tanning, white tees, chains, poofs, hair gel pierced ears and muscles.  The article on The Time website shows how many Italian Americans disagree with the use of Guido and Guidettes Andre DiMino president of UNICO (the national Italian –American service organization) objects to the term whether its self-described or not. Donald Tricarico a sociology professor says that younger generations have embraced the word Guido; he has researching Guido’s for 20 years. He says that the word may have come about because of the moral panic made by the media in relation to the 1989 racial incident in an Italian American community in Brooklyn, but he’s say the Guido subculture started in the 1970s with John Travolta as the Guido icon that these boys should follow and his many incarnations: Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever, Vinnie Barbarino in Welcome Back, Kotter and Danny Zuko in Grease.  (NOT FINISHED)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4V_RjIpSPI – Donald Tricarico talking about the Guido as a youth subculture

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BG274QUSZjg – Vinny and Pauly D – FPC making fun of stereotypical Guido’s 

Anthony Beltempo proposed the idea of a show focusing on the Guido lifestyle for TV but in a competition form, but executive producer SallyAnn Salsano decided to make a new concept based on her summers in New Jersey in a shared house. MTV’s programming executive Tony DiSanto felt that after the Hills they should change the way they showed reality TV to take a more authentic approach and do a documentary style, the casting call sheet for the show said: they want loud and proud Italian under 30 proudest “Guido” and “Guidettes” all expenses paid. The Real World is MTV’s longest running programme and one of the longest- running reality series in history and Jersey shore can be seen as a spinoff of the Real World because both shows are about a group of young people who don’t know one another being put into a shared house together in summer.  The only difference is that Jersey shore has a regional identity element where it is just Italian Americans being shown.

 MTV may have chosen this ethnic group because they wanted to explore the fascinating subculture of Italian Americans, and what makes them unique. I also think the network wanted to explore the whole Guido and Guidettes culture and introduce it to the world so other people can get an insight into their world by putting them in a house located in New Jersey Seaside Heights, where in the summer most Italian American youth who have just turn 21 go to spend time in a house with their friends, but with jersey shore its 8 strangers being put into a situation where they don’t know one another and also have to be followed around by cameras 24/7. MTV wanted to see what is so great about Seaside Heights in the summer that makes Italian Americans want to go as the idea did come about from the executive producer SallyAnn Salsano who decided to make a new concept based on her summers in New Jersey in a shared house. I think the interest in regional identity shows is that they allow the audience, who may not be familiar with a typical group, to get some sort on insight into their norms and values or the audience could be looking for people in the media who they can identify with because Guido subculture was growing but not many people knew about it outside the Italian American community. Since the birth of jersey shore there has been a surge in Italian American based reality TV shows like Jerseylicious, The Real Housewives of New Jersey, Jersey Couture & Mob Wives

Season 1 shows how each housemate describes themselves before they entered the house and what it means to be a   Guido (http://www.videoweed.es/file/4e5fda87a18ad), Vinny can be seen as not a typical Guido when he first came on the show as he said that he is a generational Italian, and doesn’t like the typical Guido’s who have blow- outs and wear lip-gloss, he also says that he’s smart because he went to college and has a degree so Vinny is more traditional Italian until he came into the house in later seasons we see that Vinny has changed he tans and more recently got his ears pierced. These shows appeal to target audiences because they are relatable and also have an entertainment value that gives the audience gratification while watching the show. Since Jersey Shore many shows in the UK have come about which focus on regional identity such as The Only Way Is Essex, Made in Chelsea, Geordie Shore and Desperate Scousewives. Some would argue the reason these shows were made is so British audiences can know more about different regional identities around the UK. With TOWIE you hear what people say about Essex Girls, with the show you feel like you’re getting an authentic look at how they are portrayed even though most of these shows are scripted reality which has been copied from another MTV reality franchise The Hills.

 Regional identity shows try and depict a realistic aspect of life, jersey shore shows the cast being put out of their element in a house. The show has faced a lot of backlash from the Italian American community some saying how in TV shows they are either portrayed as idiots (Joey Tribbiani from Friends) or as mobsters (The Godfather movies and the Sopranos) they feel they aren’t being represented fairly to the public because not all Italian Americans are these are mobsters, idiots or Guido’s, many people have criticized MTV for exploiting the stereotype and only showing one side of Italian American youth culture.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/09/mtvs-jersey-shore-critics_n_385387.html

Based around Jersey Shore, the show will be about gender representations of female and male roles, ethnicity,youth& regional identity show. It will show the opening 5 minutes of the cast meeting one another and exploring their surroundings. The show will be based around African Caribbean people. The cast will have 6 people 3 girls & boys. You see the opening credits with the cast and their names, then them telling the audience about themselves – talking heads. We see the cast interacting with each other then going out playing up to black stereotypes like most regional identity shows.

Question: Ritchie is the auteur behind “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch,” which were cleverly inventive riffs on an updated British gangster milieu (Seattle times) what are the consistent elements that evident Guy Ritchie as a film auteur.

Guy Ritchie was born in (Slide 2) Hatfield, Hertfordshire just outside London; Ritchie had an interview with CNN talking about his fascination with London’s underworld of crime and how he re-invented the British gangster movies but there is a lot of controversy with Ritchie’s work because he produces the same concept in his films. (Slide 3)His work has been criticised for being predictable as he uses the same characters but tweaks the storyline. His films all revolve around the same plot, a group of men trying to repay money to a crime boss based in London, usually the east end. When Ritchie first made Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels everyone thought he was new and fresh because he re-invented the British crime genre, but Ritchie kept on repeating this concept of London crime lords in a power struggle with new up incoming business men trying to take over their area in London like(slide 4) Lenny in Rock N Rolla, (quote from entertainment weekly)a gangster who rules the thriving real estate market in London by bribing politicians, showing the corruptness of politicians who will do anything for money. (Slide 5)Most auteurs have some kind of autobiographical element to their films, but Ritchie who stems from a long line of politicians, royalty and successful directors couldn’t be further away from the London underworld he tries to represents in his films. An article by the Daily Mail states how his family is worth over £20 million and his father was an advertising executive who made the Hamlet commercials, and his mother, was a model. There is no connection to Ritchie’s upbringing and why he loves the British gangster genre. When he was asked in the CNN interview, “why do you set all your films in London?” he said “I like London: people seem to make films more similar to my kind of films in New York, but they don’t seem to in London. I’ve tried to reflect what I’ve deemed to be important or narratives that have equity within the period of time that I’ve made stories about London.”  He was also asked what he likes and dislikes about London he said: It’s a city that’s been evolving for 2,000 years. You’ve got every single culture, ethnicity, from every part of the world. It’s the juxtaposition between the rough side of life and the smooth side of life that you can find within a stone’s throw, from one street to another.” You see this in his films when he shows the different aspects of London and how every culture and ethnicity are represented to show the multiculturalism of London. Ritchie is seen as an observer, showing ‘Guy’s Town, as he likes to call it, how he wants London to be shown. The interview also tells us why he wanted to become a film director and what areas of London influence his film work. He knows what type of films he wants to continue to do, he says “I’m interested in London and reflecting what takes place in the zeitgeist of London

The word auteur was defined in Genre, Star and Auteur by Patrick Phillips auteur sign is precise and specific; it will signify a set of stylistic and thematic features which, it is anticipated will be identifiable in the text of a film bearing the auteur name. The auteur theory states that an auteur possesses a signature marking out his own individuality which he has sufficient creative control over for that signature to permeate the film. The auteur theory applies to Guy Richie’s work because when you watch a Richie film you instantly know he made it from the mise en scene cinematography, sound and editing.

(Slide 6)Richie also uses a lot of narration in his films to tell the audience who the characters are; this is very typical of a Guy Richie film. In Rock N Rolla we hear Archie telling us what a Rock n Rolla means and explaining who the characters are to the audience and what their characteristics are throughout the film.

(Slide 7)Ritchie’s films are always fast paced and the scenes are cut very quickly. He also uses non – diegetic sound in his films which relates to the genre of the film. A scene which has all these elements is when the Wild Bunch steals the money a second time from Uri’s bodyguards; it has the use of the comedy element in it because every time the Wild Bunch believed to have escaped the bodyguards they always come back. Crime elements are shown because they are robbers, which keeps the viewer entertained and griped to see if they get away with stealing the money, because the Wild bunch think they killed the Russian bodyguards but they keep coming back. This scene switches between two scenes where One- Two is explaining to Stella what happened during the robbery which is being shown to the audience, the scene with One-Two and Stella is very calm and it has been set in a restaurant with soft/natural lighting with classical music playing in the background, shows that the scene is more clam. The scene with the Wild Bunch is very fast paced, we see the two bodyguards lying on the floor which is a high angle shot, then we see from their point of view a man with an axe smash the window, Ritchie uses the sound effects in this scene of when you can’t hear anything until you wake up, then we hear a loud smash and the sound goes back to normal, with the use of non-diegetic music which is heavy drum beats to match with the fast pace with the scene on top of dialogue from the characters fighting, the sound effects of the smashing glass have been heighted to add more effect to the scene.

The audience then sees the three characters spilt up and the audience follow them while they are being chased by the bodyguards, Handsome Bob and Mumbles get away while One-Two thinks he has but the second Russian bodyguard turns up, in this scene we see many different types of shot close-ups, high angle, and sound effects of when the bodyguard is ripping off his top, we then have extreme close-up shots of One-Two and the bodyguard’s faces while they are running and the background is blurred and the screen is shaking, Ritchie said that he got the actors to sit on a train while they were pushed and asked them to shake their arms. (Slide 8 )You can also see the mixture of comedy and crime in Lock, Stock during the shoot out scene between 3 gangs who come to the house to find the money and drugs. The zorba which is a Greek song adds a comedy element to the scene because it is supposed to be a serious scene but the music means the audience can take it lightly. Ritchie can be seen as an auteur because he is putting his own individuality on his films, when you watch a Ritchie film you can automatically identify he is the director just from the sound to the cinematography.

The consistent element that Richie uses in his films which make him an auteur is his directing style. He always sets his films in London using real locations not in a studio for example, in the scene in Rock N Rolla we see Lenny and Uri sitting down and Wembly Stadium as the backdrop. Other locations Ritchie used in the film were Battersea power station, Canary Wharf and the Spitalfields market. It adds a sense of authenticity for the audience as they feel like they are seeing the real London; he uses real locations to show the beauty of London and its buildings and the different aspects which make London such a unique city to live in. These are some of his favorite locations to film in because it shows how different they have become over the last 30 years. Rock n Rolla shows the changing face of London because the new buildings are brought and the multiculturalism of the city is shown as everyone is trying to get a piece of this city and they don’t care how they will get it whether it’s legal or illegal. (Slide 9) Most of Ritchie’s films have an old – school gangster sense which tries to keep old traditional ways of business and Ritchie’s own norms and values of how his world should be run, for example his characters always have a right hand man who they trust with everything: Rock n Rolla – Archie, Lock, and Stock – Barry “The Baptist”. Ritchie always uses a heist theme in his films where a group of characters usually men get themselves in trouble with the gangster boss and need to pay the money back, a good example of this is Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, where Tom, Soap, Eddy and Bacon owe £500,000 to Harry and they try to find a way to pay him back.

An empire review said that “Of all the recent attempts to put a Tarantinoid spin on the British gangster movie, this is the freshest and most successful” which shows that when he started everybody was excited because he was new and fresh, his use of narration makes the audience feel more involved with the film because he is using characters in Rock n Rolla, he uses Archie to explain to the audience who the characters are and concludes the story. Ritchie plays around with how London should be portrayed to an American audience, he doesn’t want to portray a fake London that you get in a tourist brochure when you visit the beautiful west end. (Slide 10)He wants to show London’s not all about glitz and glam, but it has a gritty underworld with drug dens and corrupt people right from the top politicians to the bottom, but some argue that Ritchie is not realistically portraying the real London, he is just showing a 1950s version of how London used to be or how he wants it to be shown as an outsider looking in. In Rock N Rolla he does show two sides of London, the wealthy Russians moving into Lenny’s patch of business, buying the beautiful properties with Lenny still trying to be top dog in the underworld and Johnny, his son, who is a Rock star who faked his own death living in a drug den.

(Slide 11)Ritchie loves mixing together the crime and comedy genre in all his films, he has to include some sort of humor, the joining of these two genres gives Ritchie his auteur stamp and creating a new genre paradigm. We see this Sherlock Holmes it is not usually thought of as a comedy, the books aren’t humorous, and he puts a modern twist on it adding comedy.

Feminism  is a group of woman who share a combined axe to grind against men and society.

Laura Mulvey : The male gaze theory stereotypical roles that women played : slut , housewives , dumb blonde. We the female see this as a normal being an idealistic women that men want woman to be. Films produced by men for men.

Men control the action and were responsible for moving the narrative along.

Women were represented as passive objects of the male gaze.

Pleasure in viewing comes from :

Voyeurism —  the feeling the audience are looking into someones life e.g. characters in films could be sexual , usually films female. The pleasure of looking into somebodies life , the character doesn’t know they are being watched.

Narcissism - obsessed with yourself you love yourself so much, wanting attention from audience e.g. celebrities — Kerry Katona , Kanye West , reality TV stars

Fetishism - being obsessed with something or pleasure e.g. toes , bondage. Gives the person some sort of individuality  the media condition us to find certain things beautiful and other this not. Feminists believe that woman is not stereotypical beautiful it turns into a fetish

Scopophilia -  Pleasure of viewing and watching  using females for that reason in the media e.g. Rihanna

Female Objectification-females stripped of their identity kind of de-humanised  , and made into an object for mens pleasure. e.g playboy bunnies having to wear a uniform being waitress. Stepford wives film  women have been changed into the way their husbands want them to be , husbands don’t ilk ether wives having high powered jobs feel demasculinize.

Benny Benassi – satisfaction video the woman were seen as builders they are woman are work this could be seen as Scopophilia, lyrics and words are being seen as machines for male pleasure.

L cann mirror theory —  reflecting a media text to our own personal lives reflects back into society  — mirroring back to the audience e.g. through characters or making the audience feel happy or showing how we should be in our lives — feminist would argue it is dictating on how females should act.   

Gammon and Marshment (1998 The Female Gaze) – Women viewers are active not passive and engage critically with texts by selecting the ones that have meaning to them.

- Female audiences place their own interpretations on media texts.

- The audience plays an important role in construction of meaning of media texts and can interest the text in a range of ways.

- In post feministic era there are a range of media representations of men and women to view scopophillocally.

• audience responses
• mode of address
• Target audience

Uses and Gratification

desire to satisfy a range of needs for the audience – information, personal identity , relationship and escapism

Information – does it inform about issues , educating

personal identity – role models, can you idenfity with certain characters

social intergation and relationships – feeling apart of something

Escapism – you can escape from the real world with shows e.g. Misfits

Roger That is the 2nd single taken from Young Moneys Album which features Lil Wayne, Tyga And Nicki Minaj. The video pays homage to Sin City and bases a more adult story of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Cause the video is based on the film Sin City some of it is in black and white and some in colour, the edit pace in the video is fast there are also close up shots of Mianj lying on the bed and and the camera coming down but then stopping which is kind of teasing the audience.

Nicki is dressed in black in head to toe in one scene she is wearing a military hat which shows she the boss even though she the only female rapping on the track g. Nicki is lying a bed which is shot front on top of her looking down wearing a corset the audience are seeing her represented in a sexual way she playing with the camera winking and smiling at it. The video is very dark just like the film sin city.

In most video when Nicki features in she is dressed in a sexual way compared to her own video which are very simple to what people would expect her to do usually they tell a love story.

Young Money – Roger That

Right Thru Me is the 2nd single of Minaj’s Pink friday Album, the songs about a couple who are in love and fight alot. This is the 1st video where Nicki is normal no colourful wigs or big bold make-up. We see Nicki’s acting stills.

Forms : The video is set in a house and the beach the mise en scene is very simple like the song , the use of natural lighting makes the video feel real and like the relationship between Nicki and the model could also be real, the editing pace is slow between scenes , there are no special effects used in this video unlike the “Roger That” video. Nicki is not using her sexually as musch as other videos only in some scenes you see her body but its tasteful. There are a lot of close – up shots of Nicki’s face in the video to show her emotions of the character she playing in the video, the editing pace increases near the end of the video switching between many different scenes of the model and nicki alone and together.

The Audience : get to see a a sensitive, softer side of Nicki in this video and can identify with the character if they have a similar relationship to what the video is showing.

Nicki Minaj – Right Thru Me

Nicki Minaj My Time Is Now is a music documentary about how much Nicki’s career and her preparing for her album release and her VMA performance. They is a use of voice overs in some scene which is either nicki’s voice or a interviewer. Most scenes we see nicki sitting down and the interview asking her questions which are either mid/ long shots there is also use of non-diegetic music in some scenes either Nickis own music from her album Pink Friday. One scene shows nicki crying about the death of her grandmother , her make – up artist then comes into the shot and put her make – up back on , this shows even though she’s emotional in this scene she has to put her game face on she doesn’t want people to see this vulnerable side to her because her character is usually strong woman.

Nicki Minaj My Time Is Now

one scene we really get to see Nicki she herself is talking about representations of men and woman  in the media the industry and how its different things are ok for men and woman.

Nicki Minaj My Time Is Now

The audience for this documentary are both males & females aged maybe 15,16 upwards. with this documentary people may be able to in the documentary we see Nicki being normal and her audience get to see the real her behind the crazy wigs and the alter egos we get to see why she became a rapper, this could inspire her fans to live out there dreams becasue they know there idol did, also some may be able to identify with Nicki life while she growing up so the see her as a inspirational person.

The Institution behind this programme is MTV which is a music channel but more recently have done a lot of reality TV  shows its audience has changed alot since the 90s.

You could compare this documentary to Drakes “Better than good enough” documentary where viewers got to see behind the scenes up close and personal with Nicki, her camp and family see her recording songs for her album and preparing for its realese.

Nicki has said many times she has different alter egos that she uses in her songs there are Roman Zolanski , Martha Zolanski , Nicki Minaj , Onika Maraj. claims that Roman is her “twin sister”. She claims that she was born inside her, out of rage, and becomes her when she is angry Roman has been compared to Eminem’s alter ego Slim Shady.Martha appears in the video for “Moment 4 Life” where she appears to be Nicki’s magical Godmother. Minaj stated that on her debut album, fans will get to “meet” Nicki, Roman and Onika.

By having so many different alter egos it makes the audience want to know more about nicki minaj and why she has alter egos. Her alter egos connect to her music and fashion style.

Nicki Minaj Interview & Performance on Lopez Tonight

Trey Songz – Bottoms Up ft. Nicki Minaj

Nicki Minaj Feat. Eminem – Romans Revenge

Young Money Entertainment is an American record label founded by rapper Lil Wayne. The label is an imprint of Cash Money Records  and is distributed by Universal Motown Republic Group. The current artists signed to the label are :Lil Wayne, Drake, Nicki Minaj, Tyga, Mack Maine, Jae Millz, Cory Gunz, Lil Twist, Gudda Gudda, Lil Chuckee, Short Dawg, T-Streets and Shanell. Most of the artists signed to Young Money were underground before they got signed to the label.

Young Money wasfounded in 2005 by Lil Wayne he was the President of the label but stepped down adn in 2009 Mack Maine is serving as President of the label.