Proposal

 PROPOSAL

'What is a friend, a friend is two souls, dwelling in a single body' - Aristotle. Yes, Saima, my maid, is my friend. My film concept, purpose and idea, all revolves around this single sentence. I have always been amazed by the way she works all day long with a smile on her face, despite all the compromises she had to make all her life in order to support her family and I do not only admire her work, but also respect her for what she does.

Four years of my life all I have done is observe, now I finally have the chance and the privilege to make something out of my observations. And for me, there is no stepping back. I have decided to make my film on the particular subject, exactly the way it is, without any exaggeration and any extra-ordinary characteristics. I just want to see if I can make it look as simple and beautifully painful as it really is.

This topic provokes the artist inside me, and i am of full confidence to make good use of it. I feel children like Saima deserve to be filmed and acknowledged for what they do and they way they do it. I cannot think of another concept because my mind is totally and completely aroused by this one and i hope i do a good job while creating it as a media text.

Narrative

NARRATIVE

By exact definition, the word 'narrative' means, 1. a story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or fictitious, 2. a book, literary work, etc., containing such a story or 3. the art, technique, or process of narrating. Likewise, in the language of media, narrative is termed as the coherence (organisation) given to a series of facts.

It is merely in human nature that we tend to connect to a story. We need a beginning to relate it to the middle or climax, and we need the climax to relate it to the end or conclusion. This connection between the steps that lead to a story are expected by us at all times, while reading a story book, hearing the news or within major media products such as soap opera shows, documentaries as well as the'film' itself.

We understand and make meaning of stories by relating them to reality and our personal experiences. We make assumptions and need the correct order of construction in a story in order to fulfill our predicted expectations  It happens a lot at times, mainly when the next part of an old famous series of a film has released, and our expectations are high, but the entire film has no meaning. What happens then? Our expectations go down. And why is that? This is mainly because the construction and link between the 'narrative' of the film was not in balance. Hence the film did not consist of a meaning and was not admired by its audience.

Your audience is very smart. It is not wise to fool the audience, specially because it is them, who's reaction makes your profit or loss. Therefore, the concept of having the perfect 'narrative' is very important when it comes to producing and constructing a media text. Now, it is important to understand that story and narrative are not the same in meaning. What is a story? Story is simply that main substance of the text,for example, they meet, the fall in love and get married, and live happily ever after. Narrative, on the other hand, is the construction of the steps that lead to the story, or how the story is related.

Unlike reality itself, media texts are better organized. We need to be able to understand the narrative of a media text without putting in any effort. Basic elements of a narrative, according to Aristotle: "...the most important is the plot, the ordering of the incidents; for tragedy is a representation, not of men, but of action and life, of happiness and unhappiness - and happiness and unhappiness are bound up with action. ...it is their characters indeed, that make men what they are, but it is by reason of their actions that they are happy or the reverse."

It is thought that more than the characteristics and appearance of famous characters, it is their actions and reactions towards the climax and resolution of the story that make them so popular among-st their audience. Coming towards the conventions of narrative, it is very important  to know that narrative does not only exist for movies and story books, it is present in advertisements  documentaries and even news stories, because every media text needs its sense of meaning and direction.

Narrative - Codes And Conventions

When examining a media product, we expect to find a set of codes and convensions of the genre, character, form and time. We then use those coneventions while relating to the text and make meaning of the narrative.

Barthes´ Codes

Roland Barthes describes a text as

 "a galaxy of signifiers, not a structure of signifieds; it has no beginning; it is reversible; we gain access to it by several entrances, none of which can be authoritatively declared to be the main one; the codes it mobilizes extend as far as the eye can read, they are indeterminable...the systems of meaning can take over this absolutely plural text, but their number is never closed, based as it is on the infinity of language..."

What the theorist really means by his saying is basically, the narrative is composed in a such a way, that once it  starts to unravel, it comprises of several meanings that are understood while each is unraveled  But at the same time, one meaning can change once we start observing it from a different point of view. This can be done in a way that, at first we interpret the particular meaning conveyed by relating it to a particular experience or knowledge, but the moment we reverse the experience and knowledge  the meaning would change. In other words, it is on the human mind how it wants to interpret the narrative of the media text.

Barthes was a semiotics professor and he stated that the threads you try to pull to unravel the meanings of the narrative are the narrative codes and he categorized them in five following ways :

    *  Action/proiarectic code & enigma code (ie Answers & questions)

    * Symbols & Signs

    * Points of Cultural Reference

    * Simple description/reproduction

Narrative Structures

There are several ways of breaking down narrative structures and this is where most work by literary theorists has been done.

* Tvzetan Todorov - suggests narrative is simply equilibrium, disequilibrium, new equilibrium

* Vladimir Propp - characters and actions (31 functions of character types)

* Claude Levi-Strauss - constant creation of conflict/opposition propels narrative. Narrative can only end on a resolution of conflict. Opposition can be visual (light/darkness, movement/stillness) or conceptual (love/hate, control/panic), and to do with soundtrack. Binary oppositions.

VLADIMIR PROPP- Propp's analysis of Folk Tales

Vladimir Propp was one of the most influential theorists as far as narrative is concerned. He studied and analyzed a whole lot of Russian folk tales and noticed that they kept revolving around the same framework and series of events. His seminal book, Morphology of the Folk Tale, was first published in 1928 and has had a huge influence on literary theorists and practitioners ever since. He then extended the Russian study of language with his study of folk takes and  and then broke down the tales into small relative components which he called the narrative functions. Each function is an event that drives the narrative forward to a new direction. There are 31 narrative functions altogether.

1. A member of a family leaves home (the hero is introduced as a unique person within the tribe, whose needs may not be met by remaining)

2. An interdiction (a command NOT to do something e.g.'don't go there', 'go to this place'), is addressed to the hero;

3. The hero ignores the interdiction

4. The villain appears and (either villain tries to find the children/jewels etc; or intended victim encounters the villain);

5. The villain gains information about the victim;

6. The villain attempts to deceive the victim to take possession of victim or victim's belongings (trickery; villain disguised, tries to win confidence of victim);

7. The victim is fooled by the villain, unwittingly helps the enemy;

8. Villain causes harm/injury to family/tribe member (by abduction, theft of magical agent, spoiling crops, plunders in other forms, causes a disappearance, expels someone, casts spell on someone, substitutes child etc, commits murder, imprisons/detains someone, threatens forced marriage, provides nightly torments); Alternatively, a member of family lacks something or desires something (magical potion etc);

9. Misfortune or lack is made known, (hero is dispatched, hears call for help etc/ alternative is that victimised hero is sent away, freed from imprisonment);

10. Seeker agrees to, or decides upon counter-action;

11. Hero leaves home;

12. Hero is tested, interrogated, attacked etc, preparing the way for his/her receiving magical agent or helper (donor);

13. Hero reacts to actions of future donor (withstands/fails the test, frees captive, reconciles disputants, performs service, uses adversary's powers against them);

14. Hero acquires use of a magical agent (it's directly transferred, located, purchased, prepared, spontaneously appears, is eaten/drunk, or offered by other characters);

15. Hero is transferred, delivered or led to whereabouts of an object of the search;

16. Hero and villain join in direct combat;

17. Hero is branded (wounded/marked, receives ring or scarf);

18. Villain is defeated (killed in combat, defeated in contest, killed while asleep, banished);

19. Initial misfortune or lack is resolved (object of search distributed, spell broken, slain person revived, captive freed);

20. Hero returns;

21. Hero is pursued (pursuer tries to kill, eat, undermine the hero);

22. Hero is rescued from pursuit (obstacles delay pursuer, hero hides or is hidden, hero  transforms unrecognisably, hero saved from attempt on his/her life);

23. Hero unrecognised, arrives home or in another country;

24. False hero presents unfounded claims;

25. Difficult task proposed to the hero (trial by ordeal, riddles, test of strength/endurance,                                                    other tasks);

26. Task is resolved;

27. Hero is recognised (by mark, brand, or thing given to him/her);

28. False hero or villain is exposed;

29. Hero is given a new appearance (is made whole, handsome, new garments etc);

30. Villain is punished;

31. Hero marries and ascends the throne (is rewarded/promoted).

Propp also said that even though the narrative revolves around the reaction and action of the protagonist (hero), it still relates to the main characters of the story as well. He categorized these characters as

* the villain, who struggles with the hero (formally known as the antagonist)

* the donor,

* the helper,

* the Princess, a sought-for person (and/or her father), who exists as a goal and often recognizes and marries hero and/or punishes villain

* the dispatcher,

* the hero, who departs on a search (seeker-hero), reacts to the donor and weds

* the false hero (or antihero or usurper), who claims to be the hero, often seeking and reacting like a real hero (ie by trying to marry the princess)

Propp's ideology was very influencial, however, considering how vast the media has gotten, it is not certain that each film has an obvious antagonist and protagonist, hence in this case, Propp's theory is not likely to be relevant.

As mensioned earlier, story and narrative are two different things, how would ind the story from a narrative sequence, or a narrative sequence from a story?

Deconstruction of Narrative

The first step in order to deonstruct narrative is separate the plot and the story. In order to do this, we must analyse the 'substance' and how it is programmed and organized in steps. The analysis of each step can then be related to the substance. The substance will be the story, and the steps will be the plot. The main deology of constructing the plot is to

*  reveal the events which make up the story

* mediate those events for the audience

* evaluate those events for the audience

Lastly, narratives usually need a location, either physical or geographical in order the be able to relate to the genre, setting, characters as well as the story. The narrative of my film is heaily based on the ocation, age and gender of my actor and my storyline, that all will be relevant to one another, complementing one another, making a uniue and easy to comprehend product.

Representation

REPRESENTATION

Literally, the term representation has several meanings as, representation- the action or an instance of representing or being represented, and representation- an image, model, or other depiction of something.

Representation- Reference :

1. Presence, bearing, air; Appearance; impression on the sight. 2. An Image, likeness, or reproduction in some manner of a thing; A material image or figure; a reproduction in some material or tangible form; in later use, a drawing or painting. (of a person or thing); The action or fact of exhibiting in some visible image or form; The fact of expressing or denoting by means of a figure or symbol; symbolic action or exhibition. 3. The exhibition of character and action upon the stage; the performance of a play; Acting, simulation, pretense. 4. The action of placing a fact, etc., before another or others by means of discourse; a statement or account, esp. one intended to convey a particular view or impression of a matter in order to influence opinion or action. 5. A formal and serious statement of facts, reasons, or arguments, made with a view to effecting some change, preventing some action, etc.; hence, a remonstrance, protest, expostulation. 6. The action of presenting to the mind or imagination; an image thus presented; a clearly conceived idea or concept; The operation of the mind in forming a clear image or concept; the faculty of doing this. 7. The fact of standing for, or in place of, some other thing or person, esp. with a right or authority to act on their account; substitution of one thing or person for another. 8. The fact of representing or being represented in a legislative or deliberative assembly, spec. in Parliament; the position, principle, or system implied by this; The aggregate of those who thus represent the elective body.

from The Oxford English Dictionary

Now, it is understood the representation basically involves re-presenting anything, keeping in focus all the dominant aspects of what is being represented. By braking down the word represent to re-present, it is now easier to understand the that representation takes place when something is presented as itself in different ways i.e  such as a portrait can represent the person being painted.

Representation has many levels. It can be done in accordance to objects, events, people and beings, and social norms and festivities. Even though this is a much debatable topic, according to most definitions, representation is basically a term given to 'presence' and 'depiction', mainly in appearance (having a visual aspect). We could make good use of this definition when it comes to representation in terms of media.

Representation in terms of Media

'By definition, all media texts are re-presentations of reality. This means that they are intentionally composed, lit, written, framed, cropped, captioned, branded, targeted and censored by their producers, and that they are entirely artificial versions of the reality we perceive around us'. The particular sentence basically folds up the entire idea of representation when creating a media product.

The artificial presentation of aspects of reality that we see on the television, the internet, newspapers and magazines etc, are what lead us to our level of understanding and prediction about everything around us. Media representation has broken the walls and limitations of knowledge for us. We create perceptions about things as they are represented and brought to us by the media. Taking as example, we know of traditions and latest fashions of one country while sitting in an other. Without the concept of representation in the media, our knowledge about the world would be very limited.

However, limitations to knowledge still occur. This is mainly because we gather information and create perceptions the way the media wants us to create. We believe what we see in a media text. Our minds make the set up in accordance to what we are experiencing while consuming any sort of media representation. Does that mean that what we see, read or hear by the media is always true?

LIMITATIONS TO MEDIA REPRESENTATION- an evaluation

We, as audiences, tend to except anything the way the media shows it. Yes, to some extent we do believe that representation in some situations is highly fictitious, but in the base, our ideologies are brought together by these representations of culture, traditions, thoughts, situations, history etc (reality). Therefore, we tend to ignore what is true and what is not while consuming any such thing. Not because we are generally indifferent in nature, but because the product is created in such a way that its message and ideology, be it true or false, is not negligible. The media depicts and creates, while we believe.

ANALYSIS OF REPRESENTATION

Representation is always directed to a certain topic. We can call these factors of representation. These factors are taken into account when presenting a media product. The most prominant characteristics of these factors are gathered and studied, therefore, this is study is used in representing these factors. Some of the most commonly used factors of representation are

- gender

- ethnicity and culture

- age

-race

- ability and disability

GENDER- starting with gender, this is the most important and likely considered factor of representation. The concept of differentiating between genders takes us closer to the actions, reactions, body language and characteristics and human beings. Not only by appearance of people we can represent gender, but also by objects. Certain things are considered 'masculine' and some are considered typically 'feminine'. For example, tough, hard, sweaty are typically masculine characteristics while soft, fragile, fragrant are typically feminine characteristics. Likewise, a sports car would reflect the characteristics of the male gender while a lip gloss and flowers would represent the female gender. In order to understand gender representation, it is important to know a little about representation of femininity first

.

Representation of Femininity

Despite the fact that the philosophy of feminism has changed over the years with the concept of modernization and woman empowerment, the media still represents 'femininity' using the same characteristics as all times. These characteristics include

- Beauty

- size and physique

- sexuality

- emotionalism

- relationships

These are all the stereo typical elements of woman representation and these can be related to 'feminine' factor of representation mentioned above. Representation of masculinity is exactly the opposite, as summarized above.

Race, Ethnicity And Color

Race, ethnicity and color, in terms of representation are exposed by their genetically defined, biological characteristics, just as sexuality. However, they are also given their exaggerated stereo-typical elements as those of gender when it comes to showing them of within a media product.

Stereo-typing of age is the one of the most controversial representations in the media, even more than gender differentiation  This is mainly due to the fragmented cultural and racial ideologies of the world and the history related to all sorts of racial discrimination. Racial representation takes place mainly under the terms of history and social myth, perpetuated down the ages. The result of this act basically sets the depicted ideology of the represented race or culture which for those viewers who have never experienced in reality, can turn into a belief regarding that race. Accurate racial portrayal is a priority for political agendas, but it is not easy to remove this concept and process by all means of the media, mainly television.

Age

After gender and ethnicity, age is one of the most prominent factors of representation used for profiling people, and in accordance to that, objects as well as topics. With the different gaps of aging, comes a different way of stereo-typing. For example, small children and youngsters can have the following characteristics

- Innocence

- Indifference

- Laziness

- greed

- self-involvement

-impatience

On the other hand, the characteristics of the elderly will be completely different. These would consist more of love, care, knowledge, grumpy, out-dated, slow, unhealthy, dependent, miserly etc.

The representation of different ages can hence be related to objects. For example, colorful rooms, toys and video games would represent children, while sports cars, trendy fashions, make up, notebooks, high school lockers would represent  youngsters. However, heavy frames, newspapers, and an item of support i.e a stick or a a box of medicines would represent old people.

Ability and Disability

Ability and disability are still fairly easy to represent, in comparison to others. This is mainly because this topic, when represented, is done mainly under the circumstances of reality. This means there is not much exaggeration that has to take place when it comes to stereo typing. Characteristics of actual ability and disability are picked and shown within the media text. However, this is a vast topic since ability would remain the same usually but disability would differ since there are different sorts of disabilities that people possess. Some can be physical disabilities, some can be mental, whilst others can be a mix of both. Presentation of this relies on both, physical, biological and mental attributes of human beings as well as their social standing in accordance to these attributes.

My film's representation is quite different actually. We can say its a representation on ethnicity and culture but its mainly a representation of the rich and poor, mainly, the poor. My film explains the story of a poor girl striving to earn, working at a house as a maid since the age of 9, while what she really wants, is education.  I chose my own maid since no one would know how to represent 'her', better than 'herself'. This decision of mine will make me represent this ideology easier, since it will be original. Also, my film is also a representation of the 'third world' countries and their trend of keeping servants, depriving the young poor generation of education as since childhood their main achievement of life is to work for some rich family treaating them like, not to be 'offensive', but 'trash' ( used the term to quote peoples' stereo-typical perceptions about the lowest class).

COMMERCIAL AND NON-COMMERCIAL COMPANIES

COMMERCIAL AND NON-COMMERCIAL COMPANIES

By the term 'companies', here, we are referring to those companies or institutions that cater to media text. Catering is done in terms of finance, distribution, production and promotion. These companies are also called media houses. Every media text needs to generate money and help from these companies in the process of making the mroduct. For example, a film has to be released and distributed after being produced.

Other than being divided into sectors such as finance  distribution, promotion etc  these companies can also be divided into commercial and non-commercial companies. So what are these and how are they different? Non-Commercial Companies (public companies) are those companies that have to follow accepted business practices in order to make a profit but is not a financial company or institution. A good and most successful example of a non-commercial media institution is BBC. How is BBC  a non-commercial company? This is mainly because BBC  caters more towards public purpose in all means other than just entertainment and profit making. BBC dos not only finance and distribute films, documentaries and shows but also the news and environmental knowledge via different headlines and programmes  It is one of the few Media institutions that are also shown on television as a complete Channel. Not only that, but is the world's most biggest and famous new channel, catering to a wide range of the worldly occupation  and is definitely the most authentic and trusted news channel. The BBC has six public purposes. For starters, sustaining citizenship and civil society (The BBC provides high-quality news, current affairs and factual programming to engage its viewers, listeners and users in important current and political issues), promoting education and learning ( The support of formal education in schools and colleges and informal knowledge and skills building), stimulating creativity and cultural excellence (Encouraging interest, engagement and participation in cultural, creative and sporting activities across the UK), representing UK, its nations, regions and communities ( BBC viewers, listeners and users can rely on the BBC to reflect the many communities that exist in the UK ), bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK ( The BBC will build a global understanding of international issues and broaden UK audiences' experience of different cultures) and delivering to the public the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services (Assisting UK residents to get the best out of emerging media technologies now and in the future). The BBC is run on the basis of certain laws and guidelines  These are created by individual official bodies such as OFcom, BBC trust and fair trading. These policies help BBC obtain the designed public purposes. In other words, institutions like BBC are more socially friendly whereas non-commercial companies are just the opposite.

Commercial companies however, are companies that work more towards making money by financing, promoting and distributing media texts, mainly feature films in order to make money through audience feedback and box office ratings. The main difference between commercial and non-commercial companies is the concept of ideas and purposes, since commercial companies want more of social welfare and non-commercial care mainly towards their profit maximization. Non commercial companies tend to choose a particular genre type of films that they cater to. Examples of non-commercial companies are Walt Disney Pictures, Warner Bros, Paramount, Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures, Fox etc. Taking Warner Brothers as an example, this is one of the world'd oldest and respected motion pictures organization. It not only finances films but also produces them as well as promotion and distribution. 

Institution and Fraternity Research

INSTITUTIONS IN AND THE FILM FRATERNITY

In easy words, one could describe the word media institution as those people, organisations and bodies who have certain role in the production of a media text. Big or small, this process is not as simple as the words make it sound. Institutions basically comprise of many kinds, these mainly include companies, producers, distributers, financiers and promotion and marketing organisations for starters. You see, a media product consists of many steps that lead it to become what we, the audience can see.

What part does each sort of institution plays and why? A  scriptwriter sells out his or her story. A directer makes a film and the editor edits (considering the main processes of the process). Now what? A director wouldn't really release the film now would he? This is where institutional companies and organisations step in. Big producers will examine the ideology and the target audience for a particular product. If they feel everything has been collected together and created well and that the product s strong enough t meet its target audience then these producers wight agree to finance the product. Once enough money is generated then marketing and promoting the product is done by other marketing departments. Eventually the product needs to be distributed around whether on DVDs, on celluloid or other ways for example via iphone applications. Taking television for an example, products will be be of two types, commissioned (asked for) or non-commisioned (just written by a hopeful scriptwriter). The easiest way of understanding this is that basically a product has to be sold at all levels in this process. Everything in the media world of institutions depends on money. What does this mean? Well, you cant possibly sell your story out just because the director is your friend. In reality, every stage in the process should be economically viable in order to reach the next stage. Foe example, if the product does not make enough finance in a process than its costs, it will be very difficult for the next buyers to purchase the product. On the other hand, finance is very hard to generate. This is mainly because the audience's feedback is always uncertain. This is one reason why institutions feel that the connection between the product's ideology and story with its target audience is very important. This is because if a film does not have all the genre elements that are needed to attract its audience, an institution would resist putting its money into the process.

Now coming to Film Fraternities, what does this word mean? The word 'fraternity' simply means a group or body of people joined by similar backgrounds, occupations, interests and tastes. Hence, a film fraternity is created by each and every existence of people in it. In other words, a film fraternity is known as the Film Industry  The two most popular film industries of the world are HOLLYWOOD and BOLLYWOOD, however, that does not mean these are the only industries. Countries and different occupations comprise of their own film industries that cater to their culture, interests and languages. Every film industry comprises of its own film institutions. This is mainly because different film fraternities follow their own set of codes and conventions in terms of which their films are made. For example, the codes and conventions of a Hollywood romantic film will differ from that of a Bollywood romantic film. This will be explained in detail later. Hence, their institutions cater to their own types o films. A Hollywood institution that caters most to romantic films would not exactly want to finance a Bollywood romantic film because of the diffence in representation genre. Further more, film fraternities and their institutions have a better relationship in terms of its audience and the occupational culture. A Bollywood romantic film might be loved by people in India but to foreigners in lets say, England might still find their own Hollywood romantic films more interesting and attractive. Bollywood is the name given to the film industry of Mumbai and is known for making huge box office hits. A romantic film here would be very glamorous with very good looking actors and a very sterio typical ending and conflict. Heavy clothes and make up, exaggerated use of sound and music, romantic setting in a beautiful place with heavy wind blowing and the heroin stares at the hero as he fights of a bunch of men who were teasing his love. Actually, no matter how many times repeated, the audience loves it. This is because the film makers know the mentality and areas of interests their audience upholds. Hollywood on the other hand does more simple and close to reality story lines. Film are very less repetitive and less dramatized. That is the way the audience likes it here.

So basically, whatever a film industry comprises of, comes from its own self. Coming to film institutions of different industries, lets come to Hollywood first. Hollywood comprises of some of the world's biggest institutions. These consist of Walt Disney Pictures, Warner Brothers, Collumbia Pictures, Universal Pictures, BBC, Twentieth Century Fox, Sony etc. These are a few very popular institutions. Most popular out of all is Walt Disney. which is also one of the oldest, along with its oldest competitions  Warner Brothers. Many popular films have been catered under Disney itself like the old classics Cinderella, Snowwhite, Beauty and the Beast to the new feature films like Tangled and Pirates of the Carabian. Disney and Warner bros cater to real life feature films as well as animated feature films. Unlike the usual institutions, such like Disney, not omly produces, but creates, finances, promotes and distributes itself too. Sometimes more than one instiutions tend to work together as a merger like Warner bros and dreamworks, that is another institution. At times an instituion also tends to buy another like Disney bought Pixar, which means now every feature film produced by Pixar is owned by Disney. On the other hand, we have institutions like Twentieth Century fox and Paramount that mostly cater to horror, comedy and romantic films.

Bollywood has some other famous institutions too. Some of the most popular are Eros International, Dharma Productions, UTV etc.Starting with Eros Entertainment, this is well known to be one of India’s biggest leading media and entertainment institution and has been under business since almost three decades. It has a core trade in production, acquisition and distribution of filmed text under several distribution ways like theatres, television and other technical media applications. It has a vast level of distribution considering genres of films. It distributes all kinds of film, including art, drama, comedy, adventure, horror, action and romance. This is one of the reasons why it is so big. It also works as a jewelry business otherwise, and this is rare since institutions, especially in Hollywood, don’t have this concept of having other side businesses as well. The company has started from being a distributor and now is known to be an aggregator. It has offices nearly all around the world. A few names of movies it has distributed are Desi Boys, Rock star, Ra. One, Zindagi Na Mile Gi Dobara etc.

Next we can take a look at UTV, which is another huge institute. It also has a vast distribution of films and has the honor of being one of the oldest institutions of Bollywood. It also gives importance to a number of films with completely different genres whether, art or drama or romance or whatever. It is a privilege to directors and producers to have such institutions buying and distributing their films. It caters to major art films, like Rang De Basabti, that has been one of Bollywood’s big success. So, films of mixed genres are likely to be distributed and financed by such institutions.

Coming to Dharma Productions, again, a very huge institution formed by Shri  Yash Johar in 1976. It has always been able to achieve its goals by producing high quality cinema that is accepted and appreciated all around the world. It has produced movies like ‘Dostana’ , ‘Dunya’, ‘Muqqdar ka Fiasla’ etc. But these are still towards the side, it has produced india’s biggest blog busters that have broken box-office records without a fail. It had produced the famous ‘ Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ which did not just break records but also gathered a number of national and international awards. And this kept going on till movies like ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum’ and ‘My Name Is Khan’ were produced and once again broke records to a great amount. This production house is famous for distributing and financing drama and romance related movies and has the reputation of being a very honest and clean institution and had been able to prove it over the years. Eros International and Dharma productions usually cater to romantic and comedy films. UTV on the other hand is more into action, drama, thrill and art. Eros International and UTV are probably the most popular and have the highest number of produced films in the Indian film library. They also have a great number of box office hits and the Indian directors feel very lucky to be financed by such big institutions. They generate enough money to finance Bollywood's glamorous a long films with very highly paid actors. Here generating money is more important because the India has a higher number of poor and middle class people who like drama and exaggeration as well as a bit of a 'flash' in the films. So directors feel it is important to have all these elements in their films so that people enjoy and generate money. No one would rather have ordinary actors in a romantic film over the great Bollywood actors 'Shahrukh Khan' and 'Kareena Kapoor'. Obviously such big actors wouldn't compromise on the amount they are paid.

Moreover, the basic idea to sell out films step by step finally to institutions is because it is on them to decide the possible result due to which mostly before the release, there are premier shows arranged. These shows basically give an idea about the audience reaction to the producers. If the reaction is good, they decide to make a cinema release, but if not, they go with just a video release. Summarizing everything, Every media text needs its institution and every institution comes from its fraternity that is its occupation.

My film will belong to Bollywood as the film fraternity. I chose Bollywood because its a very true film representing the culture of our 3rd world countries. The faces, location, language and music, nothing is relevant to the Western world since it is not part of their culture, norms, traditions and the over all Western Personality. Poverty and the trend of keeping maids and servants so much is something you don't get to see abroad, but is very common here in Pakistan or places like India.

Within Bollywood, I have chosen UTV Motion Pictures, for two reasons. UTV tends to represent very cultural films. Its main film genre being catered is mainly romance and action, but being the vast institution that it is, it also caters to other genres, including art films. 

Since I am making an art film i planned on choosing UTV, however, the other reason is that not many institutions in Bollywood tend to finance and distribute short films. There are different small institutions that are solely operating to finance short films, but are very few and very unknown. Since branding is such a wide part of production, specially for art films that need branding to promote themselves due to a small level of attraction to audience otherwise, I considered UTV as a better idea than choosing one of the unknown institutions. Hence it is understood, when a film does not consist of super stars or well known directors or stories, media houses can be of great help, no director, not even an art director would mind making money, infact, we all love to make money, and we rely on our audience for this purpose.

SOME EXAMPLES OF FILMS FINANCED BY UTV

UTV BLOG REFERENCE 

UTV Software Communications Ltd (UTV), India's first integrated global media and entertainment company, has seen recent expansion, both in existing businesses and into new growth sectors. The entire UTV focus is on creating, aggregating and disseminating outstanding content - we are a creatively led company which believes in setting not following trends. UTV is a diversified media and entertainment company with content creation abilities across platforms and genres.

The UTV group has expanded into 5 verticals, all of which allow for synergy across in terms of content development, communication and development of thought leadership. This also creates exciting opportunities for employees to move across businesses in order to broaden their experience and enrich their career.

These 5 verticals include the following:

• Broadcasting
• Games Content
• Motion Pictures
• Interactive
• TV Content

Listed on India's premier stock exchange, The Bombay Stock Exchange UTV has subsidiaries with offices across India, UK, USA and Japan. The Walt Disney Company holds a strategic stake in UTV.

Genre Analysis

GENRE ANALYSIS:

Different film industries have several media institutions, that are production houses responsible for the financing, distribution and publicity of media products, mainly films. Usually, these institutions buy films under particular genres that they consider worthy to be publicized by them. Due to this reason, every film is based on a particular genre and at times a combination of sub genres.  Before starting, let us see what the word ‘Genre’ really means.

INTRODUCTION –A genre is an important concept for film critics, film makers and audiences as well as media theorists. A film genre is said to have both, academic as well as practical applications since films are categorized by their genre at every stage of their existence  whether its when then script writer write the story, to the final stage where they end up as real films on celluloid and movie stores. This categorization builds our understanding about thee film as a media text. A media text is said to belong to a specific genre, as it adopts the codes and conventions needed to create and represent that genre in accordance to the expectations of its target audience. At times, texts from different mediums, belong to the same genre. ’Audiences’  have a set of expectations to a media text and what it contains according to its genre in terms of transportation, representation, costume, mise-en-sene, characters, setting, sound tract etc. We can relate these to the term ‘genre-specific’ elements. These are what the audience expects to find while experiencing a media text. For example, having a horror or thriller theme, the audience would expect things like, dark lighting, a quiet old place, a heroin in white, very obvious diegetic sounds etc. However, having the same sorts of genre-specific elements, horror and thriller are still two different genres, as horror relates to super natural activity while thriller caters more to reality.Genres also differ from industry to industry, as  Bollywood art film will be different from that of a Hollywood art film since both cater to different cultures and traditions as well as social and environmental problems (art films cater to reality and the surrounding). Hollywood art films might show a teen-aged girl getting into drugs, however a Bollywood art film would want to show the problems of poverty, considering their own occupational problems.

Despite having such elements, texts from the same genres are not always the same. Genres are defined as dynamic, since their boundaries keep changing. Media texts often challenge codes and conventions, while still being able to define certain parts of the usual genre categorization. To an audience, genre texts could get very boring if they keep following the same predictable conventions. This can result to people not wanting to consume new films, rather revisiting their old favorites.These genre spacific elements are also called genre paradigms. These are part of the descriptive approach of genre analysis. This approach involves viewing a film as belonging to a category, or being an example of an established type. The film is perceived as sharing aspects and attributes as another such as structure, theme and visual style. Hence, this approach relies heavily on these genre paradigms and codes and conventions.  But what are codes and conventions really? CODES AND CONVENTIONS – You can call these stereo types.

 We relate to codes and conventions in any media text without even knowing. When you go out to watch a romantic comedy, you expect good looking heroes and heroins, nice and slow sound tracts, intimacy, heroin crying, hero proposing and all that with a touch of comedy having funny dialogues and scenes, but if you go and watch ghosts and weapons, you wont be sure if thats the movie you paid for now would you? These expectations are what make codes and conventions important in catering to a particular genre. So who are genres important to? PRODUCERS – These give a pattern of construction while having an established audience that makes it easy to market to. Also, when working for the same genre over and over again, specialization is experienced and also, a producer has a big choice to those specific starts who act for the particular genre. Fans of genres also know the codes and conventions, so not much work into reinventing the wheel all the time is needed. DISTRIBUTORS – This creates a clear channel of marketing and distribution as it has a target-able audience and fans are easy to attract and persuade into buying other texts within the same genre.Genres are very important for the initial marketing of the movie. They are also extremely important to some finance companies such as Netfix and Lovefilm, that heavily rely on the categorization and presentation of genres in order to attract their own target audience. This happens mainly because some institutions choose their type of audience than the type of films before, such as Disney, that caters mostly to children as it target audience.  Another method of analyzing genre is known as the Functional Approach. In this approach, the film genre is perceived as 'collective expressions of contemporary life that strike a relative knowledge about it to the audience'. This approach can be most useful in representing art films since they are most close o reality as well as some romantic films where the audience can relate to the feeling delivered.

Sub Genres-In order to attract your target audience to the fullest, you can always combine genres. For example, if you plan on making a horror film but in your survey, you find out that more people tend to watch romantic movies more than horror, you can always keep romance as a sub genre and your film is now a romantic-horror and you may have attracted more people by now. However, your combination of genres must be relevant. That is, you can combine a romantic comedy, with a hint of action, but in this case, horror would not be considered as an option. Or you can combine thriller and action, but comedy here would not seem very appropriate. This is because you can play with codes and conventions to a certain level, but you need to make sure your media language remains easy to read. You must never cheat your audience, since your audience is who will really decide if your product is good or not, despite all the money and effort you put in it. As mentioned before, codes and conventions differ with industries. A Hollywood horror would be different from a Bollywood horror. Hollywood makes it more realistic while Bollywood makes it more exaggerated. Hollywood would probably use action, or bible words in the conclusion, but Bollywood mainly uses their Hindu teachings in their conclusion and would last for longer, usually three to four hours. A Hollywood chick flick would have a rich pretty looking girl with the best wardrobe, the best house with a swimming pool, the most expensive and trendy car, a pet that she carries along and the best looking boyfriend, however in Bollywood, their girls and women are shown in big houses with usually two staircases wearing heavy jewelry, flashy colorful ‘saris’ which they stay in all the time even while going to bed. Film industries in different countries have different conventions in accordance to their own trends and cultures. An art film by Bollywood would be very different from that of Hollywood, having local faces with very prominent Indian accents and showing completely different cultures and a completely diffenet representation and construction even though the genre’s the same.

So basically, genre does not simply rely on the text but also the way all micro, genre specific elements are put together to one macro level and then the text is constructed  This is what really allows us to distinguish between different genres.

Criticism on Genre- As mentioned above, genre categorization and analysis is very important to critics. It is often harsh but useful. Pointing out types can be either negative or positive. For example calling a film a 'Western' or 'Eastern' type can be an indirect way of racial and social discrimination. This is known as the Semantic Approach.Another approach is called the Syntactic Approach. This takes into account the relationship between the semantic elements, or between those elements and the aspects of real life, within the media text. This approach can make good use of genre since at times the inequalities and incidents within a media text can become more meaningful by the justifications given by these approaches. So basically, have the correct representation of genre in accordance to the story line and the target audience is very important otherwise the outcome of the complete media text might not make sense.

Coming to my own GENRE, as according to the concept of my film, that is on poverty and child labour, the genre of my film is ART. Art films are indeed tricky, as far as film genres are concerned. This is basically because art films have a very limited set of codes and conventions. Unlike the expected scenes and mise-ene-sene one would find in horror films or romantic fims, art films tend to cater ti reality, hence different aspects of life. So with each aspect, a new concept and treatment is used. Yes, however, there are certain characteristics that art films tend to carry along. These include a great use of sound, both diegetic and non-diegetic, use of cultural aspects, at times repetition of something, like soundtrack (motive), ordinary actors and a simple storyline with very little exaggeration in both, the story, the direction, as well as the editing. I will shoot and create my film in the same manner. It will be a simple product on the daily life of a girl or child forced to work rather than going to school. After examining a number of short art films, i have planned to make my film look dull, i would use color filters, and use a slow depressing background score, with a great use of the fluit and make my film look like a true 'ART FILM'.

Character Profile

CHARACTER PROFILING

                  

This is an extreme long-shot of my film character. This camera angle is used merely to cover the entire body of the character from far apart, showing the surrounding mise-en-sene within the frame as well. Extreme long-shots can be taken even when a character is not present in the frame, for instance, of a building, as a type of an establishing shot. It is now noticeable that the character is visible from head to toe, determining the character's appearance, posture, height and basically, over all physical aspects.

  

 

This is a simple long-shot, covering a clearer version of the character as compared to an extreme long-shot as less of the surrounding is visible and more of the character itself. Again, head to toe, but the physical appearance of the character here is much more precise as it provides a closer look towards the character

As it is shown, only half of the character's body is visible. Whenever half of the character's body is visible, it is known as the middle-shot. This gives an even more precise look at the character or object as compared to a long-shot, however, unlike a long-shot, it does not determine the entire appearance from head to toe. The posture of the the area of the bdy covered shows the posture in a much clearer form There is also another type of a mid-shot is it covers more than the area from the face to the neck. But compared to the one shown, this is closer, hence, gives a better look at the character. Also, this is taking within the frame, the side angle of the character, determining the appearance from an angle as if looked at from the the side. Facial expression is now more clear.

This a low-angle mid-shot, determining the character's appearance from a low angle, making the character look massive and giving a sense of superiority. Such angles are mostly used on heroic protagonists and at times strong antagonists i.e a king or a vampire. The camera acts as if the eye is looking at the character of object from a lower distance.

Finally, coming to the close-up, this camera shot covers one portion of the character or object in way that all its details are visible. As it is shown, the characters features as well as facial expressions are determined. Now of for instance an even closer look is to be provided of an even more precise area within the face i.e the eye, an extreme close-up will be used.

This is an extreme-closeup, focussing on a particular feature of the character, giving the closest possible look at the character's expression.

Being the exact opposite of a low angle shot, this shot is taken from a higher point of view, making the character look small, short, stout and at times, used to make a particular character look inferior.

This is an 'over the sholder-shot', mainly used when something important in front of the character is to be taken into the frame, i.e, when the actor's making conversation with another.