- To what extent, do people believe that Asian fathers are strict and violent?
Angle
- Since many Asian families are like this and is becoming the norm, how is this effecting the lives of children?
Hypothesis
The hypothesis that I think is suitable for this working title is the following:
- Since Asian fathers are quite strict and sometimes violent, it can potentially scar their children for life or they can become strong hearted.
Linked Production Piece
- My idea for a linked production piece is to create a short opening extract of a short film.
- The initial plan for me is to start the opening with two character ; a father and daughter. The father himself is going to be an alcoholic and will find out that the daughter had done something wrong. This will lead to the father killing the daughter and then the father will drive off before his wife and other son come home from work.
Media Language
- One of the main types of media language that had come up in the text is mise-en-scene. One of the key mise-en-scene was 'facial expressions'. In the text that I have been researching (Murdered By My Father), the two main protagonists would show different facial expressions at every moment of the movie. For example, the father may be happy and having a good time with his family at a party, but later on he may look very worried. In addition, the daughter would be happy with her boyfriend but when she comes home, she'd be frightened that her father may potentially do something to her.
- Another type of media language that was well used was a tilt and panning shot used at the end of the movie. In the ending, the father had killed her daughter and then he had pushed himself over a balcony and landed on a wooden bench. At that point, there would be a long panning movement that would come to the scene of where he had landed from around the corner. Then in that same panning movement, it converted into a tilt camera movement and the camera itself went up and onto the balcony where the father had landed.
- Furthermore, in that tilt and panning movement, there would be the sound of the main protagonist (the daughter) talking about how sorry she was to her father and she didn't want to cause friction between them too. But her father had already taken it too far.
- Murdered by my Father was a very dull movie, in terms of the lighting. With every scene in the movie, the lighting was either be a natural lighting or it would be very dark. This effect had also portrayed the life of the teenager girl (main protagonist). The reason for this is that she is having a hard time as her life seems to always be controlled by her father and doesn't have an option on what she want to do, e.g. which boy she wants to be with.
- The point above, about the lighting is also related to the setting (mise-en-scene). In the movie, the setting is based in a dull and poor area. The characters themselves are in a block of flats where there are many drug addicts etc.
Institution
- The production itself was based in England, London. It was filmed by the BBC and was published in 2016.
- The movie Murdered by my Father, was a short budget movie and for that reason, it didn't have as much advertising and only a short trailer. However, despite there being a lack of advertising, the BBC still managed to get 1.1 million people to view the movie on their first launch on BBC One.
- Murdered by my Father was distributed at around 8pm which is 'prime time'. This is the time when most people and their families get together and watch TV.
- In this movie, the director and author of the movie Bruce Goodison and Vinay Patel.
- Murdered by my Father is a similar movie to Murdered by my Boyfriend as it was produced by the same institution and had around the same movie budget as written on the BBC website.
Genre
- The genre of this short TV movie is drama. But, I would also believe that this is a -crime-drama because it involves death and many fights.
- The audience themselves can sum up themselves that this is a drama movie, as it is based around families having their inside 'family politics'. The girl in the movie is wanting to be with someone but her father is forcing her to go to another man which she doesn't want to.
- The movie itself was based on a real life story. Many years ago, a girl had been killed by both her parents (by suffocation). And I think that the writers of this movie wanted to send out a message to the audience that this isn't a good thing to do and is, morally wrong.
- In addition, the documental genre is institution. The BBC, the institution that produced this movie, had also made a similar movie called 'Murdered by my Boyfriend' which has a similar concept compared to this movie.
- Therefore, I would believe that this isn't a one-off drama and has got many movies related to the one that I had researched.
Representation
- The text that I have researched over the summer is based on two protagonists, a girl and her father.
- I believe that this gives a negative refelction on Asian fathers. This is because of the fact that they have made this father look very strict and as a villain by making him kill his daugter at the end. Therefore, this will effect people in real life as there will have to be extra caution.
- Also, this text reinforces stereotypes about Asian fathers. Despite, the producers going over the top with their analysis of the Asian fathers, I believe that they still gave a good understanding of what Asian fathers are like and is also a postive. Asian fathers are very controlling towards their children but that is only because they care about their children and I believe that this text did give a good understanding about this.
- A mediation example related to this text is 'compression'. (ADD MORE)
Audience
- The target audience for this particular movie would be in the ages of 13-28. This is because of the fact this is a BBC Three type of movie which is targetted to a younger audience. I would also believe that the audience would be mixed gender as it is based on a female and a male.
- The actors in this movie are not as well known compared to the other movies made by the BBC. However, one of the main protagonists in this movie (the father, Adeel Akhtar) has played a role in other popular movies for example the Dictator.
- This movie has a great link to the personal identity in Uses & Gratifications. I think this because of the fact that the movie itself is based on a teenage girl who is always being controlled by her father and I believe that the audience can relate to this because this is a common thing where a girls father controls her but only been he wants to take care of them.
Ideology & Values
- (ASK SIR FOR HELP)
Narrative
- The narrative is a very strong part for this text for example, the 'narrative roles' plays. In the movie, the male main protagonist at first was seen as a 'hero'. This is because of the fact that we saw his as a widowed father raising up two children by himself. However, we saw a huge contrast as at the end, we saw his kill his own daughter which changed him into a villain.
- In addition, the main protagonists son also played a part as a helper. This is because of the fact that he would always tell his dad something whenever, the female main protagonist had done some wrong or something that her dad would approve off.
- At the end, when the father had killed his daughter and jumped of the balcony. We were left at a heart-breaking closure as the audience would've expected the movie to be a happy ending but it didn't; it was resulted in death with both of the main protagonists.
- Furthermore, some people may use the binary opposition theory by Levi-Struass to compare the different ethnicity's, e.g. Asian community fathers vs. White community fathers. The audience may think that fathers in the White community give their children more freedom whereas it's the complete opposite when it comes to Asian fathers.
- I believe that this is a closed narrative movie as it had an ending to a 2 hour story.
SHEP
Social
- Socially, Asian communities tend to stay within their ethnicity groups. For example, Asians would have Asian friends and do everything with each other.
- Since they have been bought up in this way, they either have no choice to make other friends or they just don't want to.
- In addition, since Asian fathers are very strict sometimes, they have more control over their children which effects their social lives. This may impact them in a way where they may not be able to go out with their friends etc.
Historical
- Since this has been a norm for a very long time (strict Asian fathers), the children don't bother to debate with their parents because they may realise that they are a traditional sort of family.
Economic
- In the 1960's, when a lot of the Asian community moved to England, there has been a lot of debates and rivalries going on. For example, in the UK, the Asian community are starting to become a very wealthy type of community and some may beleive that they are becoming more wealthier than the white community.
- The fact that people believe this brings a lot of jealousy to the Asian community and brings the political debate of why are Asians allowed to work in the UK when they should be giving the jobs to the white ethnicity.
Political
- In the Asian community, there is something called the 'cast system'. This is where two different casts cannot be with each other because of the fact that one believes that they are more wealthier than the other cast.
- In the younger generation of Asians, they do not care much about the cast system but their parents do as they were bought up in this manner. Therefore, they will have to stick to this cast system as they would therefore be forced to.
Issue/Debates
- Representation and stereotyping -> I believe that this is a strong issue and debate to talk about, especially with what I am researching. Since my debate is about the 'Representation of Asians' this will contain many stereotypes within the Asian community, e.g. Asians usually own a corner shop etc.
- Media tecnology and the digital revolution - changing technologies in the 21st century -> Since the text that I had been researching over the summer had a big part in the representations on Asian fathers, the media technology can relate with this debate. Children nowadays have become less 'cultural' due to the impact in the brand new technology and therefore, act as how everyone in the community does.
- Ownership and control -> Control and ownership also plays a big part in the text that I had been researching. The text itself was about a father who was controlling his own daughter and didn't allow her to have much freedom at all.
- Moral panics -> This is related as parents believe that if their children are doing something without their permission, they're upto no good and creates the negative thoughts.
- Media effects -> Since the media talks a lot about the younger generation nowadays, this will also have an impact on their lives since the adults will become more aware of their child and the others.
Theories
- Gender and ethnicity -> Ethnicity, especially focuses on the debate I will be studying. This is because of the fact that my debate is based on the Asian community and that's all. Gender can also be related in terms of the strict males that occasionally appear in the Asian community.
- Audience theory
- Semiotics
