'Hot Fuzz' extraction.

The narrative in this extract fits the action adventure genre mainly because of the main character and his actions. He only has 4 lines of dialogue in the whole extract, but Edgar Wright understands that actions define a character. Firstly, he rides on a white horse (or as Florence pointed out; a grey horse) through a conservative English town. White generally symbolizes purity and goodness, like the white dove from the Biblical Noah's Arc story. There's a low angle shot, emphasizing his dominance and presence over the local towns folk. He seems rather calm and relaxed for a man wielding dual machine guns into a village which he knows is hostile, specifically to him, but he remains stone-cold cool in a situation of almost certain death, chewing a toothpick as he passes by.  He's positioned high, he acts suave and casual, all the while walking into a ticking time-bomb of a village. He's accurate and professional, almost as if 'pro' was the main tenant in a character termed 'protagonist'.

We can also identify with the pastiche used in Hot Fuzz. For instance, if you've watched any Western film ever, you can recognize the signature convention used in this extract. He strolls into town on his white horse, chewing a toothpick and wielding high-powered rifles, drawing the attention of all the townsfolk with the twangy guitars and harmonicas dwindling in the background. From this, we can instantly identify the action/adventure themes in this extract. We're familiar with Clint Eastwood and Django enough to know that any film imitating it is an action film.

the IT crowd is alright.

I don't like canned laughter. At all. Woody Allen summed it up in Annie Hall. 

Rob (To Alvy): We do the show live in front if an audience. 

Alvy: Great, but nobody laughs 'cause your jokes aren't funny. 

Rob: Yeah, well, that's why this machine is dynamite. 

That sums it up for me. Canned laughter is a sign that you should be laughing, but you aren't. It's forced. A good comedy makes you laugh because it's funny, but a lazy comedy has to indicate when you should be laughing. It's what put me off Friends, it's what put me off Big Bang Theory (along with a bunch of other stuff I wont get into), and it was what initially put me off The IT Crowd. The bulk of the humour in  The IT Crowd revolves around making fun of Chris O'Dowd's and Richard Ayoade's socially awkward, introverted man-children and all their cringy social encounters, and Katherine Parkinson's computer illiteracy and her incongruity in an IT department.  

Richard Ayoade is always funny, but the actual jokes are often slapstick, much like 'good old-fashioned comedy', as in it's very obvious and heavy-handed lacking subtlety and wit. From I've seen, the plots twists and turns are dictated by how deep the introverts can dig themselves into the pit of social awkwardness, channelling the Mariana Trench, but it can sometimes be funny or at least mildly humorous. There is always potential comedy in three people who know little about social interactions indulging in social interactions. 

As far as introverts go, there are a wide range of introverts that The IT Crowd depicts, unlike The Big Bang Theory which simply depicts all nerds and basement-dwelling troglodytes. There's the buttoned-up, 31-but-lives-with-his-mum stereotypically geeky type, the lazy, sloppy, poorly-dressed introvert with the work ethic of an overweights house-cat with no legs, and the obligatory woman character who has to be grouped with these nerds, but is no more introverted than them. She may be a Luddite, but is mainly independent who doesn't fall to gender conventions like many other Luddite-esque women. It's mostly obvious and silly, but it make me laugh quite a few times, so if it's intention was to make me laugh, then it succeeds as a comedy, I guess.

fragrance advertisement analysis (final copy).

Unlike other adverts who make women seem defenseless and powerless yet pretty and seductive, an advert almost 100 years old can prove that you can make a feminine figure who also seems powerful and authoritative. She can appear this powerful figure whilst also keeping little touches of femininity, like the red lipstick.

She's positioned highly, dominating the entire image with her presence. She has her hair tied back, looking as if she is in control of herself and not loose or careless; she appears a taut woman. The colour red is a strong, vibrant colour, and is often used to emphasis a symbol of importance and/or power, see the Red Army, the Red Cross, the Chinese flag, and the main colour pallet for 1984. It's a powerful colour, and here it's used to empower the subject of the image: the woman. She's not flimsy or objectified, she has power and dominance. She's not just dominant over the image, she's dominant over herself. She doesn't succumb to societal pressure to be 'pretty' or 'hot', she's her own woman. She is independent. She has power.

I elaborated upon the idea that she is a powerful woman, but she is not an entirely masculine figure, as she still keeps touches of femininity, like her lipstick. This shows that a woman can be powerful and headstrong, but she can also be a woman, as power isn't synonymous with masculinity either. This is breaking the historical societal code that 'Men are men and women are women', in which men are the laborers, the founders and the pioneers, and women were merely an object to them, like a trophy or an achievement. This shows that a woman can possess all of the aforementioned traits, yet still be beautiful and seductive and all the other traits of the average woman. Yes, it is possible to be both, yet most advertisement, film and video games think combining these two characteristics is impossible.

The use of contrasting colours in important. There's contrast in the colours in the crown behind her head (black and white), but there's also the duality in the colours on her face. It could symbolise the contradiction in her character; she possesses traditional female qualities (the red lipstick and the plucked eyebrows) whilst being the aforementioned powerful figure. The colours and shades are sharp and precise, which could mirror the characters mannerisms.

final choices.

Points:

• Empowerment
• Minimalism
• Colours
• Cultural relevance
• Messages

The message of this 50's advert is that a man, no matter his physical appearance, will get the woman he wants and the treatment he wants. He's a large and hairy man, yet gets a conventionally attractive woman massaging his back, with the obvious help of this perfume. The man is represented

• Sexuality
• Messages
• Objectification
• Target Audience
• Historical Resonance

• Originality
• Relatability
• Famous actress appearing down to earth
• Comparison to other adverts
• Messages