Blue Planet II episode one - 'One Ocean' - initial analysis

Presented in note form following initial reactions to the episode. Apologies for grammatical issues.

Introduction

• A montage of generically typical establishing shots of ice, water and Attenborough's boat, accompanied by choral and equally grandiose classical music
• "This is Blue Planet II"
• Environmental message instantly established

Dolphins

• Title card - 'One Ocean' followed by super slo-mo crashing wave. "The surface of the ocean conceals the many creatures that live beneath" functions as an enigma code for the audience
• Super-slo-mo indicates extremely high production values
• "They do so for the sheer joy of it"
• "You have to travel with them, in to their world..." direct mode of address, providing the audience with an escapist gratification.
• Non-diegetic soundtrack briefly ceases, replaced with pleonastic clicks and grunts of dolphins exploring.
• Themes of family established through wise adult and curious youngster archetypes so beloved by TV wildlife documentaries

Coral reefs and the tusk-fish

• Another vast, grand establishing shot, before again taking the audience below the surface of the water.
• Time-lapse photography
• Enigma established - "he does something few believe a fish could do"
• Use of foleys positions audience with the tusk fish, and montage editing reinforces meaning
• "whoops!" imbuing this fish with anthropomorphic traits again allow the audience to identify with a plucky, clumsy underdog
• The gratification of knowledge is reinforced throughout, including by Attenborough's admission that "fish are cleverer than you might suppose", which also functions as a jokey mode of address to the audience.

Terns

• Yet another grand arial establishing shot. The soundtrack becomes more intimate, and lacks the aquatic instrumentation of before.
• Non-diegetic sound suddenly low and murderous with pleonastic crashes as the terns are eaten from below. Low angle shots establish these fish as the definite antagonist (thanks Matilda!), and a binary opposition to the plucky 'fledglings'
• Once more, the gratification of knowledge and information provided through the villainous, antagonistic fish having the depth perception of a bird. 
• Noble, driving music accompanies a montage of the 'fledglings' approaching 'the training grounds', once more encoding a range of ideologically motivated character archetypes
• That the fledgling is now able to escape demonstrates the final phase of a Todorovian narrative: a partial restoration of the equilibrium, reinforced with wistful music
• Immediately following super slo-mo near miss, a match on action to the young tern, with a laughter like chirp anchoring the joyousness of having escaped certain death. Once more, human emotions applied to animals for the purpose of providing a compelling narrative to the audience

Really big waves

• Guess what? An arial establishing shot!
• "The oceans hold 97% of the water in the world" - the gratification of information
• A range of computer graphics demonstrate the power of nature in a visually appealing way.
• "in it's lifetime, a large storm can produce enough energy the equivalent of 10000 nuclear bombs - anthropomorphisation AND a cool fact!

Mobula rays

• Potentially grotesque animal presented as being elegant and beautiful, anchored once more through the choral, delicate soundtrack
• "stimulates many of the planktonic creatures to luminesce" lexis is more technical than the Jeremy Kyle Show (!), though utilised in a poetic manner as opposed to coming across as scientific jargon. Consequently forms a double mode of address for much younger and much younger audiences.
• "only now do we have the technology to record their faint glow" - not only a boast about how ridiculously expensive this show is, but also an explanation for the comparatively low film quality for the subsequent imagery
• "An extraordinary ballet of life and death" - once more, faintly middle-class connotative language

False killer whales

• "A rare visitor" - demonstrates the significance of recording this act
• A series of establishing shots of the landscape of New Zealand - Mew Zealand explicitly
• "constantly chattering" - comedic connotations from the dolphin's noises
• Rapid editing between underwater and birds eye shots
• Once more, an establishment of the protagonist and the antagonist: "the false killers have detected them...the killers quicklt close in on them"
• "something truly extraordinary" - fast paced editing suddenly slows, soundtrack changes to major key, emphasising the significance of the impending "friendship"
• Ome unified army" - reinforces possible LOTR reference, BUT ALSO another example of anthropomorphism 

Sea otters

• Established "lounging" in the sun. Allows audience to identify with the pet-like animal. However this sequence is very short

Japanese sex fish

• Extreme close ups of misshapen fish face - "in female fish terms, he is particularly handsome" - joke further anchored through comedy instrumentation
• Many extreme C/Us of this couple suggesting many weeks of filming
• POV shot entering hole, music becomes threatening, a montage of shots demonstrates a shift from sex to sex.
• The freakish grotesquery is emphasised through a series of fast edits
• "The territory has a new ruler", once more establishing a new equilibrium

Orca whales

• Microlight establishing shot of icebergs
• All non-diegetic sound cuts out, creating a significant change of pace
• The orca themselves teased through shots of fins breaking the water in the lazy Nordic sunlight
• "these particular orca are fish hunting specialists. They work as a team..." once more, utilisation of human centric terms such as specialist and team bestows human qualities on these animals, allowing the audience to identify fully with them
• Hans Zimmer's soundtrack at this point really emphasises how much this documentary actually uses the conventions of the action/adventure genre. Reinforces a dominant reading of the brutal raw power of nature. 
• Sudden introduction of an antagonist - humpback whales, their size emphasised through pleonastic and bass heavy groaning
• Montage of underwater C/Us and birds eye arial shots establish a sense of scale

The Gulf Stream

• More CG descriptions of complicated meteorological phenomena

Global warming and the walrus mother

• "worrying signs"
• Slo-mo shots of stalactites melting
• "a profound impact
• Utilisation of reaction shiots, emphasising the severity of the situation and the presence of the polar bear
• "but she too has young ones to feed. What is a mother to do?" Continual reminders to the audience that we are not watching animals, we are watching mothers. This allows the audience the gratification of personal identity.
• The "desperate" situation of the rapidly melting ice blocks. The montage insinuates that the fight causes the 'berg to crumble, establishing an atmosphere of anxiety and frustration
• Plaintive piano and choral music anchors image of mother walrus 'kissing' her cub
• 'our blue planet' - snese of of ownership and responsibility

'Into the blue' - making of sequence

• "Blue Planet II has been four years in the making", a reminder of the quality and expense of the show
• This making of lists an array of extremely expensive and new equipment, emphasising the veracity of the show
• Approachable Australian cameraman demonstrates the international reach of the BBC

How to revise effectively in media studies (and any other subject)

You will have received an excellent email in the last few days about growth mindset and reconfiguring the way in which you see the world when it comes to learning and revising. I couldn't agree more with this ethos, but we'd like to add a few more revision tips. If you are a second year (A2) media student, the Easter holiday is your longest stretch of unbroken revision time before the exam. And if you are a first year (A-level) student, you should start revising as soon as possible so you can exceed the grade you initially wanted to get at the start of the year.

1) Start now

I really can't emphasise this one enough. Sitting back and thinking you have all the time in the world may be the case at this point, but unless you actually start, you're not going to get anything done. So make a resolution to do something today, even if it's just for five minutes. In fact, make five minutes your actual goal, because you can definitely, definitely do this. And afterwards you can feel smug that you did some revision!

2) 'Little and often' is better than 'once or twice but really loooooong'

Related to the above point, but the only way to get better at something is to do it every day without fail. But telling yourself "right, as soon as college is over I'm going to revise until I pass out" is pretty much doomed to failure for many reasons. Top of these is that you're going to feel pretty crappy about yourself if you don't live up to your inflated expectations, and the next step is thinking along the lines of "well I screwed that up yesterday. So frankly there's no point in even trying today". So little and often is the key. Start with five minutes, bump it up to ten, and by the time you're a week before your exam, you'll be doing an hour per subject a day and it won't even feel that terrible.

3) If you get bored, do something else (revision related)

This is really important. I have vivid memories of revising for my A-levels and then realising that I had no recollection of the last hour of revision, essentially meaning I had wasted precious time I might have well have spent playing Super Mario 64 (it was a very different time). The issue wasn't that I was too tired or was doing the wrong kind of revision - it was because I was bored. So if you're bored, there's plenty of other things related to revision you could be doing, from switching to a different subject, phoning a classmate to moan, or using a completely different revision method.

4) Use as many different revision techniques as possible - mix it up!

Contrary to what you ma have been told, there is no such thing as a 'bad' revision method. For some people, reading through your notes may be the most effective form of revision, but even if it's not, it's important to mix things up. A change is as good as a break, and all that. Some examples include

• reading your notes, 
• making notes from notes, 
• pass cards, 
• mind maps, 
• spider diagrams, 
• a study buddy, 
• past papers, 
• completing timed essays (A2 will know all about 16 minute paragraphs by now!),
• just clicking around and looking at the blog, 
• reading someone else's notes, 
• teaching someone else the material,
• scrap notes,
• revising key scenes and texts

5) Remember, the 'A' in 'A-level' stands for 'advanced'

One thing to remember is that A-levels are really really hard. They were designed to challenge students beyond compulsory levels of education and as a way for universities and employers to quickly assess a candidate's critical thinking, specialist knowledge and ability to perform under pressure. they are assessed on a completely different level to GCSEs. A C at A-level is much harder to achieve than a C at GCSE. So if you're finding the subject tough, that's good. This is what you signed up to, and it means you're taking it seriously. If you're cruising through the subject, you're not fulfilling your potential. 

6) The best exam revision is completing past papers... 

...which might seem fairly obvious, as this is what you'll actually be doing to get a grade, but remember to do this in conjunction with other forms of revision. My personal recommendation: pick a question, find key scenes, make scrap notes from class notes, come up with a definitive argument, then close everything and write a timed response. You can then submit this to your teacher for feedback.

Please let us know if you have anything to add!

Blue Planet II - initial research

Sir David Frederick Attenborough

• Age 91
• Studied in Cambridge 
• Broadcaster and Naturalist
• Working with BBC since the 60s
• Narrated Blue Planet, the highest UK viewing figure 2015 with 14.1 million views
• Born the same year as the queen
• Doesn't count himself as an 'animal lover' 
• •The only person to have won BAFTAs for black and white, colour, HD and 3D
• Rejected for his first job he applied for at the BBC
• Served 2 years in the navy
• Has more then 10 plants and animals named after him 
• Thought to be one of the most well travelled people on the planet
• veteran english broadcaster and naturalist.
• Spouse: Jane elizabeth ebsworth oriel 1950-1997.
• siblings: richard, john, irene, helga.
• children: usan, robert.
• born: 1926 8 may, 91.
• british.
• born in middlesex.
• his parents fostered 2 jewish refugees from europe.
• best known for writing and presenting.
• former bbc manager.
• ONLY person to have won baftas for programmes in b&w, colour, hd, 3d and 4k.
• considered as a national treasure in britain.
• 2002 named one of 100 greatest britons.
• presenter of bbc radio 4.

Related merchandise

• Book, hard copy and Kindle version
• DVD, multiple different versions including 4K
• Box set of the two seasons 
• Posters
• Blue planet two box set - DVD and Ultra 4k
• Blue planet two book by James Honeyborne
• Blue planet two t-shirt - black and white
• calendars
• books
• dvds
• stickers 

Specialist equipment

• Low light camera
• Drones
• Underwater motion-control timelapse rig
• Submersibles
• high-tech submersibles carrying ultra HDand extreme low-light cameras
• macro-camera
• infrared cameras during night shoots and in the perma-darkness of the deep.
• One of the submersibles is fitted with 8K cameras in order to see the tiniest of creatures. 
• The shots of the baby sperm whale attempting to dive with the adults for squid were only made possible by attaching cameras to the whales.These small orange camera tags were placed on the whales using a fishing rod, and remained stuck on the mammals' bodies using suction caps. They were automatically released after 30 hours and the crew could locate the devices using the radio tags.
• They designed new camera equipment – a specialist float rig. This meant the camera could glide along the same currents at the jellyfish.
• The close up of the stingers were done in a specialist filming pen that could be attached to the side of boat using a macro camera. 
• Filming Walrus on iceberg: To get the shots, a specialist cameraman had to dive into the freezing Antarctic waters with a camera rig that weighs 50kg. It’s so big, it takes a team of three people to get it into the water.
• The Megadome
• Bespoke camera rig built specifically for the show, to film dangerous animals at water level, and minimise disturbance to the habitat. e.g. in the shots of the mother seal and her pup on a single iceberg.
• Three-seat filming submarine
• Built for the show at very high cost, used to film and explore deep sections of the sea, include the sea bed itself.
• Extreme telephoto zoom lens

The BBC

• Founded 95 years ago (October 18, 1922)
• Founder: John Reith
• BBC stands for ‘The British Corporation’
• The BBC is watched/listened by 96% of UK population
• Radio, TV and online programmes are available in 28 languages other than English
• It is Europe’s biggest provider of media and creative skills training
• 1 in 16 adults (worldwide) use BBC news
• The BBC license fee costs £145.50 a year (40p a day). It includes 4 TV channels, 10 national radio stations, network of local radio stations, internationally-acclaimed website, BBC parliament, world service, S4C, BBC monitoring and 5 orchestras and choirs.
• The broadcaster receives £3.7 billion a year
• Spends 76% of its fee income on TV content (more than any other broadcaster) (SKY only spends 34%)
• Headquarters are in London

Distribution

• England=  
• Series premiere took place at bristols cinema de lux - 11/10/17- with special guest appearance of the producers, wild life experts and attenborough
• International=   
• series broadcast on bbc earth channel
• pre-sold to several broadcasters - such as channel nine (australia) telefonica (spain) blue ant media ( canada. In China, the premiere took place at Shanghai's East China Normal University on 27 October 2017, with guest appearance by the producer Orla Doherty and Mike Gunton, the executive producer of Planet Earth II.

Critical reception

• Blue Planet 2 did exceptionally well, scoring 95% on Rotten tomatoes
• James Parker from the Atlantic said “Scenes of tremendous grandeur, thrashing pods of orcas, are switched dizzyingly with Attenborough's other specialty: the vignettes, the micronarratives.”
• According to the Guardian Blue Planet 2 was chosen by TV critics as the best show of 2017.
• Blue Planet 2 has proved a big success for the BBC and attracted more viewers than any other program this year.
• On IMDb Blue planet 2 is given 9.5/10
• The TV show Blue Planet II was the most watched show of the year in Britain
• The opening instalment of the show drew 14.1 million viewers
• Blue Planet II is the UK’s most watched natural history show in 15 years 
• The third most watched show of any king in the last five years, trailing only the 2014 World Cup Final and the Great British Bake Off
• The BBC said that 2.3 million of the viewers were in the crucial 16-34-year-old demographic

Social media and viral trailer 

• soundtrack Radiohead. audience appeal to fans of the group and of the song
• 'if the trailer of blue planet II is this good, I am going to lose my head when the whole thing comes out'
• Sir David explains how viewers are being taken on an ocean cruise unlike any other.
• direct mode of address talking to the audience keeping audience engaged with the soothing soundtrack relaxing audience
• "Its message, and the methods it employs to deliver it, makes this the most important television on right now." Hanh Nguyen, Indiewire
• Memes made on twitter, people re tweeting 

Thanks to P block for submitting this research!

Charity advertising and the 'white saviour' archetype

One common stereotype in charity campaigns is the utilisation of the 'white saviour' archetype, a white, Western celebrity whose presence connotes wealth, generosity, and an ability to solve issue overseas. This representation often encodes colonialist ideologies, the idea of a wealthy and dominant nation helping a less able, developing nation. This style of charity campaigning is now so unpopular with audiences that Comic Relief seem to be ditching them all together. You can read about it here.

A good point of comparison between the old fashioned 'white saviour' campaign is the Wateraid advert we studied in class, Claudia Sings Sunshine On A Rainy Day. In what ways does this campaign subvert traditional colonialist ideologies about race, ethnicity and African people?

The Jeremy Kyle Show and the manipulation of the working class

The Jeremy Kyle Show presents a consistently stereotypically negative representation of working class people. Through a process of selection of guests, editing techniques, and the anchorage of musical cues, working class people are represented as being unhealthy, idiotic, disorganised and unattractive. But why does a show that explicitly targets working class people use such brutally misleading representations?

A simple answer could be because it presents the audience with the gratification of seeing people with a similar lifestyle. But then why would the audience wish to see themselves in such an unflattering way? It is clear that the 'guests' are being 'othered' through the use of binary oppositions, and this meaning is anchored through the use of reaction shots of the working class audience looking in horror and fascination at the working class 'guests'.

How do we know that The Jeremy Kyle Show is targeting a working class audience? There are many aspects that tip us off. For a start, it is broadcast at 9:25am on weekday mornings, meaning that typically only those working part time, shift work and the unemployed will be able to watch it. The show has particularly low production values, from visible boom mics and cameras to a shot of Kyle falling over (to rapturous audience response). The costume of the studio audience suggests a working class background. Finally, Kyle's awkward use of slang suggests a middle class presenter desperately trying to communicate with his working class audience. The constant blunt repetition of "she's your daughter, mate" establishes a sort of catchphrase for the episode, and allows Kyle to adopt a working class lexis. 

From a Marxist perspective, The Jeremy Kyle Show is created by the ruling class. The ruling class can only continue to exist by manipulating the working class. Since the working class outnumber the ruling class, the ruling class must make the working class consent to the system of controls that exist in society. This form of ruling through consent is called hegemony. One powerful message to present to the working class audience is that working class lifestyles are undesirable. If the working class audience believe that working class people are fat, ugly, lazy and repulsive, then the ideology that working class people are to blame for society's issues becomes cultivated.

The consistent negative representation of working class people not only presents the poor as being unwholesome and detestable, but it may also effect the ways in which the working class are treated in every day life. "It's a bit Jeremy Kyle" can be used as shorthand for a 'working class situation' or location, and for the secondary audience, the representations on offer on the show become the only point of reference for people who may have never set foot in a council estate before. Additionally, negative representations can provoke a self-fulfilling prophecy, where working class people in desperation may eventually end up emulating the expectations placed on them.

All this might be pretty easy to dismiss if there were the equivalent of The Jeremy Kyle Show for posh people. However, there is no middle class equivalent that I know of. If you can think of anything, please let your teacher know!