Stereotypes of Age in Tv Drama's

New Tricks is a BBC television drama series which follows the work of the Unsolved Crime and Open Case Squad (UCOS). Led by Detective Chief Superintendent Sandra Pullman, it is made up of retired police officers who have been recruited to re investigate unsolved crimes. The series title is taken from the popular expression "You can't teach an old dog new tricks". The "old dogs" are successful in adapting their skills and experience to modern policing, with their knowledge of past cases proving especially useful. Series 7 premiered on the 10 September 2010.


In New tricks the four main characters are all older than the average policeman, this is because the UCOS squad needs experienced cops, and one stereotype is that with age comes wisdom.
Many stereotypes are also portrayed in this drama as I have viewed many clips where one of the main characters would be in chase with a suspect and they would start to run and they wouldn't be able to keep up with the younger person, this is a another stereotype that old people are not very fit.


The theme song to the TV drama has the lyrics "It's alright, it's OK, doesn't really matter if you're old and grey".

"It's alright, it's OK, listen to what I say."

"It's alright, doing fine, doesn't really matter if the sun don't shine.

"It's alright, it's OK, make it the end of the day." this insinuates that because they are old they might not be able to make to the end of the day, but the program also breaks stereotypes as all the main characters are not defenseless as they always seem to solve the case and get the bad guy in the end.
Though in the drama the police men use the fact that there older and more experienced to help themselves, because people seem to trust them more as they are seemed as harmless and they also have old friends ad informant s that can help them get the edge over the younger investigator's on the force.

Marjorie Ferguson(1980's)

Ferguson identified 4 types of facial expressions on the front cover of British Women Magazines

Chocolate Box

• Half/full smile
• Lips together/slightly parted
• Teeth barely visible
• full/three-quarters of face to the camera

Invitational

• Emphasis on the eyes
• mouth shut with hint of smile
• head to one side or looking back to the camera

Super smiler

• full face
• wide open, toothy smile
• head thrust forwards or chin thrown back
• hair often wind blown

Romantic/sexual

• includes male/female two-somes
• dreamy
• heavy lidded 
• overtly sensual/sexual

Trevor Mullen (1990's)

seductive

• similar to cool/ level
• eyes less wide
• expression is less reserved but still self-confident
• milder

Carefree

• Nymph like
• active
• healthy
• vibrant
• outdoor girl
• often smiling/grinning

Practical

• concentrating
• engaged in business at hand
• mouth closed
• eyes sometimes directed
• sometimes slight frown
• hair often tied back or short style

Comic

• Deliberately ridiculous 
• exaggerated
• acting the fool
• pulling faces

Catalogue

• A neutral look as of a dummy, artificial , wax like
• features may be in any position- but most likely to be with eyes open wide and a smile.
• looks remain vacant and empty with personality removed.

Male Gaze

The male gaze usually portrays a man 'having a look'.
Woman normally Passive.

• Gaze three area's
• how men look at women 
• how women look at there selves
• how woman look at other woman

film audiences have to view character from the perspective of a heterosexual male.

The male gaze doesn't take into account the reverse of the male gaze.

A woman's reaction would also be presented by a male action.

It relegates women to the status of objects, the female viewer must experience the narrative secondarily by identification with males.

In this lesson we were also instructed to watch a music video from the band 'Scouting for girls'


This was a test to see if we paid attention to the colors of certain objects instead of looking at other things in the video.
some theorists also have noted that sexualising of  the female body even in situations where female sexiness has nothing to do with the product being advertised is a way of grabbing people's attention and interests.

Leon Festinger

Leon Festinger (pronounced Feh-sting-er) (New York City, May 8, 1919 – New York City, February 11, 1989), was an American social psychologist, responsible for the development of the Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, Social comparison theory, and the discovery of the role of propinquity in the formation of social ties as well as other contributions to the study of social networks.

Cognitive Dissonance

Stereotypes shape public opinion, They are narrative Shortcuts which orientate the audiences expectations.

some people argue that stereotypes are fixed and changing.

Festinger believes we resist changing our opinions unless faced with overwhelming evidence against what we believe.  Cognitive dissonance is when our 'brain' encounters new idea's and rejects them because they don't match our expectations- reflective two way flow.

Working Title

The Company 


http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2005/apr/16/business.hayfilmfestival2005


Working Title Films is a British film production company, based in London, UK. The company was founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. It produces feature films and several television productions. Eric Fellner and Bevan are now the co-owners of the company.

Working Title Films was co-founded by producers Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. In 1992, PolyGram became the company's corporate backer. Radclyffe left Working Title, and Eric Fellner, a fellow independent film producer, joined the company. The company produced a variety of films for PolyGram's London-based production company Poly gram Filmed Entertainment. An Anglo-Dutch film comp, PolyGram Films became a major Hollywood competitor. In 1999, PolyGram was sold to Seagram and merged with MCA Music Entertainment, to form Universal Music Group. PolyGram Films was merged and sold to Universal Studios in 1999.

Although contractually allowed to produce any film with a budget of up to $25 million, on a practical basis, Bevan and Fellner consult with studio executive at Working Title's parent company NBC Universal. Working Title is located in Oxford Street, London, and is known for having a limited number of employees. The company also has other offices located in Los Angeles, and Ireland.

In 1999, Bevan and Fellner launched a subsidiary company named Working Title 2 Productions, commonly known as WT². The company is an independent film production arm run by Natascha Wharton, and has produced films that include Billy Elliot, Shaun of the Dead and The Calcium Kid.

• Six academy awards, 26 Bafta awards , 4 Oscars.
• Working titles films span a large genre to get a larger audience.
• working title have a formidable record of launching fresh talent, such as directors skehar Kapur and stephen frears.
• Working title also works closely with prestige austerest productions such as the coen Brothers, who did such films as 'O brother where art thou?' and 'Fargo'
• Commercially the most successful films they produce are romantic comedies, 'The Treasure' not only does it have the british actor Hugh Grant , but also the screen writer is star Richard Curtis.

Being bought by Polygram which in in itself has been taken over by Universal in 1999 has been liberating, now much less tome is spent trying to find money to fund a project now more time is spent developing decent scripts.

Working titles 2 films are currently distributed by Universal pictures, which also owns a 67% structure in the company. Studio Canal Co-produced.

The remaining shares are owned by the company's founder, BBC films and private investors.

Universal's involvement will vary widely from project to project, Tim Bevan gives two contrasting examples- 'Pride and Prejudice ' starring Keira Knightly $ 20 million budget and the 'Interpreter' $ 80 million pound budget. The Interpreter was a big movie so investors were more involved.

They were more clever and tactical about film projects in 2004

Working title has to make 1 big blockbuster a year to get there money back and then they could still do three or four smaller more discreet films as well. That leaves working title to still do the independent films.

Working title also have there own website, it has many features like video blogs (pictured above 'Paul').

Here is a list of all the films Working tile have produced.

  About a Boy (film)  

  Ali G Indahouse

  Atonement (film)

  Bean (film)

  The Big Lebowski

  Billy Elliot

  Blood and Ice Cream Trilogy

  The Boat That Rocked

  Bob Roberts

  The Borrowers (1997 film)

  Bridget Jones's Diary (film)

  Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (film)

  Burn After Reading

  The Calcium Kid

  Captain Corelli's Mandolin (film)

  Catch a Fire (film)

  Chicago Joe and the Showgirl

  The Comic Strip

  Dead Man Walking (film)

  Definitely, Maybe

  Drop Dead Fred

  Edward II (film)

  Elizabeth (film)

  Elizabeth: The Golden Age

  Fargo (film)

  For Queen and Country

  40 Days and 40 Nights

  Four Weddings and a Funeral

  French Kiss (film)

  Frost/Nixon (film)

  Gone (film)

  Green Zone (film)

  The Guru (2002 film)

  The Hi-Lo Country

  Hippie Hippie Shake

  Hot Fuzz

  The Hudsucker Proxy

  Inside I'm Dancing

  The Interpreter

  Johnny English

  Johnny English Reborn

  Loch Ness (film)

  London Kills Me

  Long Time Dead

  Love Actually

  The Man Who Cried

  The Man Who Wasn't There

  Map of the Human Heart

  Mickybo and Me

  Moonlight and Valentino

  Mr. Bean's Holiday

  My Beautiful Laundrette

  My Little Eye

  Nanny McPhee

  Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang

  Ned Kelly (2003 film)

  Notting Hill (film)

  O Brother, Where Art Thou?

  Panther (film)

  Paperhouse (film)

  Paul (film)

  Plunkett & Macleane

  Posse (1993 film)

  Pride & Prejudice (2005 film)

  The Return of the Borrowers

  Robin Hood (1991 film)

  Romeo Is Bleeding

  Rubin and Ed

  Sammy and Rosie Get Laid

  A Serious Man

  The Shape of Things

  Shaun of the Dead

  Sixty Six (film)

  Smokin' Aces

  Smokin' Aces 2: Assassins' Ball

  The Soloist

  State of Play (film)

  The Tall Guy

  Thirteen (film)

  Thunderbirds (film)

  United 93 (film)

  Wild Child (2008 film)

  Wimbledon (film)

  Wish You Were Here (1987 film)

  A World Apart (film)

  The Young Americans (film)