Wednesday, 28 January 2015

Graphic Narrative -RAY


Superman
The superman man character was first created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster in 1933. But then later on was sold to detective comics






In 1938 ACTION COMICS #1 was first published comic staring superman. During the 1940s the superman comic books became really popular and were loved by people of all ages. In the United States during the time of World War II sales of superman increased dramatically, as superman presented himself as good VS evil. 


Super man was first featured as a comic book that wasn't very popular in the 1938 then moved on to newspapers and radio shows and then moving on to TV screens Superman helped to create the superhero genre and establish its primacy within the American comic books. In the 1950s the television series of “adventures of superman” aired it was the first series to feature the comic book character “superman” 





It has been thought that Jerry Siegel first came up with the idea for superman during the period of his father’s death as His father was involved in a robber and was thought to have died of a heart attack. This story relate to the first comic book story of superman of when he was saving civilians from being robbed.

Superman’s target audiences’ all social classes, from all age ranges from young children to fully grown adults superman also targets both genders. However superheroes are mostly intended to attract more of a male’s audience. Superman’s comics would mostly be aimed at people who enjoy reading in there free time and for people who like to see cartoons as a form of art. The stereotypical audience would be geeks and nerd.


Seeming as superman came out around the era of World War II most young men looked up to the superman and wanted to be more like him seeing as he basically represented the country of America with his superman custom with the colors or red and blue representing the American flag, this comic made people want to be like superman, he was like a role model to men he also influenced a lot of men to join the war. However during the time of 1929-1939 the era of depression a lot of people used superman as a form of escapism to help them forget what was happening in their lives and think about a life if they had superpowers. In the comics superman is drawn with a lot of muscles and known for having a range of different superpowers this makes the readers see him as a stereotypical masculine man and powerful super hero, who always seemed to save the world and the girl. But on the other hand superman is also presents as the nerdy, geeky character that works as a news reporter at a news agency called the daily planet. By having superman be presented as a masculine but also nerdy character it shows that anyone can be a hero no matter his or her persona. Because superman was released around the world warII era it made people feel like they wanted to go to war so they could be like superheroes also saving their country from going under attack. Also Superman has become very popular because it shows that he has not only superhero problems but also human problems which makes him come across as not only being a hero but a normal man. Which represents him as being a normal person and this helps people relate more to him. 

Copy Rights
Siegel and Shuster had copy right issues when they sold there rights to superman “in return for $130 and a contract to supply the publisher with material The Saturday Evening Post reported in 1940 that the pair was each being paid $75,000 a year, a fraction of National Comics Publications' millions in Superman profits. Siegel and Shuster renegotiated their deal, but bad blood lingered and in 1947 Siegel and Shuster sued for their 1938 contract to be made void and the re-establishment of their ownership of the intellectual property rights to Superman”.
“in 1973 Siegel and Shuster again launched a suit claiming ownership of Superman, this time basing the claim on the Copyright Act of 1909 which saw copyright granted for 28 years but allowed for a renewal of an extra 28 years. Their argument was that they had granted DC the copyright for only 28 years. The pair again lost this battle, both in a district court ruling of October 18, 1973 and an appeal court ruling of December 5, 1974.”
“In 1975 after news reports of their pauper-like existences, Warner Communications gave Siegel and Shuster lifetime pensions of $20,000 per year and health care benefits."

To start creating my graphic narrative I will need a starting off budget of £1000. The resources I will need would be:-
  • 2/3 models would cost around £400 per hour 
  • 1 HQ cannon camera £550
  • Props £20

Doing my graphic narrative I will be at a high risk of danger so I will have to look at the health and safety risks that could occur because I will be taking photographs in different locations I will need to oversee the dangers that could occur beforehand.







Wednesday, 21 January 2015

is consumerism out of control? -EMMA


Is consumerism out of control?








Consumerism is getting out of control especially around the Christmas season when Christmas, “sale” and “50% off ”signs start to appear. The regular shoppers are constantly getting drawn into the sales section in the festive time of year. Which really puts the question into mind if Christmas has become more of a time to spend money on gifts, and cause more consumerism then to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.

The event of Black Friday was created in America the Friday following thanks giving. It was made to help give a boost on sales for Christmas shoppers. 

The Black Friday craze hits everyone differently some stay home and look at the online deals however others camp outside their favorite shops for a chance to grab some of there desired items in the sales it has been discovered that only “a third of shoppers really are out for the deals” the others “are at least partly driven by desire to be with their fellow humans”.



Visa predicted “that UK shoppers will spend £518m online on cards on Friday - which would make it the country's biggest internet shopping day in history” this shows that consumerism is increasing in time and that visa has seen how high people spend during seasons of sales.

With the help of the Internet people can buy basically anything online from the touch of a button. Web sites like Amazon, EBay promotes consumerism because it givess customers the opertunity to buy anything online at any given time or place this is making people lazy and leads to higher online sales.

Black Friday causes causes a lot of danger to everyone as they get overwhelmed with sales for example the BBC News has stated that "three men were arrested and a woman was hit by a falling television. "This shows that people are starting to get out of control and that shop assistance can’t control what is happening in their shops. This also shows that during time of sales health and safety policies don’t seem to matter.

Also BBC news said that "a man was arrested in Salford after he threatened to "smash a staff member's face in" this shows that consumerism is getting to the point that it can be dangerous and that people are willing to do anything for a desired product.

It has been said by psychologists that consumerism causes discontent in the long term and is linked "to lower life satisfaction" and moved on to say that "more wealth may provide only a partial fix" this shows that consumerism is not a permanent fix and that is will eventually lead to unhappiness.  

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30241459


This picture on the left shows a cashier struggling to keep customers in control and being shouted at by customers for attention. This shows that there aren’t enough workers in a store at times of sale. 

Sales happen in every season, which adds to why consumerism is getting out of control. When summer ends and winter start. The price of summer clothes dramatically drops with the change of season shops lower prices of products to encourage people to spend on items that they don’t need. 









 
Consumerism makes people feel like they need the latest fashion trends to fit and also the latest technology. By making shoppers feel like they need items it makes them spend more, also by lowering prices it makes it easy for them to spend. For instance, the IPhone 6 sales, hundreds of people stood outside different apple store around London, Tokyo and Sydney waiting for the realise of the iPhone 6."Some people set up camp around Apple's major stores weeks ago"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2760926/One-day-Queues-Apple-shops-longer-fans-line-latest-iPhone-6-handsets.html

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/our-destructive-consumer/ 

 
Consumerism can be seen as a bad thing but it can benefit people in low economic countries for instance, it gives people work to earn a living if consumerism wasn’t around it could “brings on economic recession or even depression, along with massive unemployment.” So this shows that consumerism might be out of contrrol but it is needed to give people employment.

Consumerism effects environment we live in for instance the production process requires extraction of natural resources like foil fuel, water and wood. Also to make the products we require the creation of factories and this creates pollution and waste. Consumerism is leading to destruction to the environment. “Consumption seems to get the least attention” because “it may be the most difficult to change” this shows that environmentalists know about the problem consumerism causing the environment, but they know they can’t do anything to change it.

http://www.globalissues.org/article/238/effects-of-consumerism