SKET post film comments

The film was very similar to how the picture portrayed it in the sense that the girls were very violent and were part of a gang culture however one thing i did not for see was one of the main characters being from Newcastle upon-tyne i thought it would all be based around Inner city gang culture which is mainly stereotyped as black males in London. The storyline was was different to what i thought i first thought it would be about two rival gangs fighting to gain a competitive edge other the one but it was about revenge through gang culture.

SKET before watching the film

The image for SKET has very dark colours and the characters are portrayed in red lighting which does tend to symbol danger and considering the characters have a look of aggression on their face this is probably what the picture is trying to get across the viewer. The characters look to be teenage youths which quite unconventionally are female normally when youth violence is viewed it is seen to be done by male youths. One of the girls in the front of the picture seems to be holding some sort of metal pole or wooden plank and seems to be swinging it in a violent manor. The girls seem to be wearing hooded jackets and coats and jeans which is definitely the dress code associated with youth violence although track suit or jogger bottoms are the normal dress code.

From the picture the film looks to be based around acts of violence carried out by some young teenage girls as a group

London Riots Questions

Overview of contemporary case study

1) The context of the riots were to show the police that they are not the only ones with power. After Duggan was shot it was a message to say dont abuse your power because us the public have more.

2) The reasons displayed for youths taking part in the riots was that they had no other choice due to continuing spending cuts uni fees rising and no jobs being available. Sociological factors would be that the gang cultures wanted more publicity as they were seen as social outcasts with poor upbringings and no direction on how to achieve in life.

3) Youths were not given a fair representation in the media in the riots because there were students who did the right thing and appealed fairly but firmly to people like Boris Johnson the mayor of London and made there voices and intentions heard instead of performing mindless acts of violence and making the local community suffer as a result.

Applying theory

1) Stan Cohen's theory of moral panic was much portrayed through out the riots as people were getting injured from both sides and even innocent bi-standers were getting caught in the cross fire for example shops being broken into or even innocent people being mugged or attacked, this created moral panic because no matter who you are you had a chance of potentially getting caught up in the violence if you were in London or any areas where the riots took place.

2)

Case study of the London riots

The riots were said to have started when a young male was shot by armed police. Mark Duggan was killed by a single shot by armed police because they received intelligence that he was about to commit a revenge killing for the person who stabbed his brother to death. When the police arrived on scene Duggan was confronted in a tense stand off with the police trying to convince Duggan to drop the BBM bruni self loading pistol that he was carrying fully loaded. Reports from the police say that Duggan fired a shot at the police which lead to an officer returining fire and killing Duggan with a single shot to the chest however investigations carried out by the IPCC found that the only shot found was in a police officers radio which was an exact metallurgical match to that of a armed police MP5 sub machine gun.

The way this links into the riots is said to have been because of this incident as youth groups viewed the police as a gang that were abusing the power they had been given so what was meant to be peaceful protests nearly turned into a full national riot with riots starting in London then moving up to Birmingham and Manchester. The majority of the riots contained youths orchestrating and carrying out the riots not in the most planned way but the point being that youth culture have never had the best media image with constant news reports on youths being anti social or even being involved in murder cases. The riots made youths look like complete degenerates with no goals or future aspirations to achieve in life but to cause mayhem.

A Clockwork Orange review task

The background of the film and how it is presented in the media
The film is designed and based around the representation of youth behavior in the media and how they can be symbolized through some sort of dress code or costume. Clockwork orange was based around the time when there was low employment in the UK and it was even harder for youths to get work because of business's were only taking on older people with experience and the youth culture was just left out in the cold as it were. This developed social gangs which were inspired by violence to get by in life which created a moral panic one of Stan Cohens theory of which is states that the media can create an image for a certain culture or group and manipulate it to make them seem worse than what they are. Then as killings were happening with similarities to the ones in A clockwork orange it developed a negative media image which caused a moral panic of people claiming the film drove people to commit killings similar to those in the film. the film was then banned in the UK but killings have recently taken place again that are similarly staged like the ones from clockwork orange

Research into the london riots

Facts and figures

A joint survey carried out by The Guardian and The London School of Economics showed that 85% of the rioters believed that the police had an important factor into the reason of the riots because they could not control the violence and because the police were seen as a gang by the rioters who abuse the power they have been entrusted with by the legal system. Two-thirds of those interviewed said they had been cautioned by police or convicted of an offence in the past. The riots provided a long-sought opportunity for settling scores; rioters spoke of "payback". 

 Another study was carried out about a review on the police with the question "Do the police in your area do a good or bad job?", only 7% of Reading the Riots respondents said "excellent" or "good" – compared with 56% of respondents to the same question in the British Crime Survey. 

 The project asked 270 rioters to say which of a list of possible causes of the riots they regarded as significant. These same factors were also put to 1,001 adults across the UK by ICM, the Guardian's pollsters. Rioters cited poverty and policing as the two most important causes of the riots, with 86% and 85% of respondents respectively saying the causes were "important" or "very important". The ICM survey of the general population, by contrast, cited poor parenting (86%) and criminality (86%) as the leading riot causes.

Qualitative debates on the riots

A you black male studying at university had a heated stand off with the mayor of London Boris Johnson saying that it is the governments fault because they focus more on the UK stock exchange and cutting EMA and other funding systems and then donating healthy sums of money to under-developed countries when really they should focus on the issues on our home soil before worrying about other countries more. The young male also stated that he is all for helping under-developed countries because everyone deserves a good standard of life but they should prioritize homeland issues first.

Another debate is that people living in poor communities often suffer a deprived or abusive childhood which leaves psychological scars on how they will behave in the future. However, such factors can only be limited because other factors such as peer pressure or even just the will of the individual can be an influence because the individual has a choice, yes it is fair to say they have faced different pressures from different directions whether it be domestic or social but if the individual has the ambition to succeed or contribute positively to society then none of areas of pressure would affect that person.

  

Quadrophenia review

Jimmy
Jimmy is represented as the leader because all of the other mods ask him for advice, he lead the group of mods to Brighton at the front of the pack of mods and during the film Steph says 'your becoming one of the main faces down there arent you' jimmy's reply is ' what do you men i am one of the faces down there', this gives of a sense of extreme self confidence that jimmy believes he has developed through being a mod. Jimmys values come across as that he feels society is against everyone so the only to beat society is being part of something bigger which he believes is being associated as a mod will achieve that. Also he develops the hate for rockers as all the mods did but he had some conflict in this hatred as an old friend of his turns out to be a rocker and is getting beat up instead of intervening and breaking it up or joining in he just gets on his scooter and rides off.

Steph
Steph comes across as being one of the most popular girls in the film as she always seems to be with the guy who is most popular at the time for example she is with a guy who seems popular then as Jimmy becomes a more up and coming figure she goes to him then when he get arrested and gets shunned by his friends she goes to Kevin. She doesnt come across to have any values as she splits up Jimmy and Kevin's friendship and seems to be abit of a loose cannon and is more spur of the moment then level headed and considerate.

Kevin
Kevin comes across as Jimmy's best friend and side kick. He doesn't have much input or independence in the film he always seems to be following the crowd or just doing what jimmy does until they go to Brighton and decides he wants an early night but has nowhere to sleep and ends up sleeping in an abandoned building with lots of rockers by mistake but doesn't do anything to the rockers as there are loads of them on to him and another mod. Kevin's values seem to be based on the mod culture and what Jimmy says but when he ends up with Steph he thinks that he hasn't done anything wrong because he thought Jimmy had sort of had his turn with Steph and thought that they had both moved on whereas Jimmy didn't know anything about it and felt betrayed by Jimmy and had a fight with him.

Mods mise en scene
The mods are identified by green parker jackets and scooters either Lambretta's or Vespers which are then modified with extra mirrors to give an individual look to the rider.

Rockers mise en scene
The rockers are identified by black leather jackets and trousers normally with metal studs and by riding sit up and beg style motor bikes.

Stan Cohens theory in relation to Quadrophenia 
the riots of the 60's between the Mods and Rockers did stir a moral panic because people could identify who they were because of the clothes they were for example Mods wearing parker jackets and rockers wearing bike leathers, this meant that ordinary people who were not part of these groups sensed fear if they saw the gangs in big numbers because they thought they would have either got hurt or their property would have been vandalized.