Media P2 CSP - Capital Flashcards
What does the drama capital explore?
The issues of the financial crisis, immigration, celebrities, property prices
What is capital about?
The show is centred on pepys road in south london.
Residents begin recieving anonymous postcards saying ‘we want what you have’ which residents react to differently
What happend to house prices due to the global financial crisis in 2007-8?
House prices soared with some properties almost doubling in price in five years
By september 2015 the average london house price was £531,000.
Traditionally working class neighbourhoods in london suddenly had houses worth over £1m+
How is the title ‘capital’ a pun?
As the show is set in london, it is a critique of capitalism and the tension is increased with the ever climbing capital created through the rising values of houses
Which company produced capital?
Kudos, an independent british film and television production company
How is kudos horizontally integrated?
The partent company, endemol shine uk, own a range of tv production companies across different formats and genres
What is horizontal integration?
When a company has many firms in the same industry
Which company commissioned capital?
The BBC
What are the main things the show looks at?
The series looks at the way London has become very polarized, with extremes of rich and poor, has become multicultural and how working class areas have not become expensive.
What helps the series succeed (industry)
Capital uses the status of the BBC to sell the product abroad in order to generate income
What is the equilibrium in capital (todorov narratology)?
Roger can be seen as in the equilibrium at the start of the series - he is the city banker who has helped his multinational company navigate through the financial crisis during 2007/8.
What is the quote roger says which can be used to show he is in the equilibrium?
Roger comments to his boss ‘£75 million on £625 million turnover. Not so dusty in the current climate’
This quote indicates how he is quite full of himself and proud, there is nothing going wrong for him.
What is the disruption in capital?
The disruption occurs where roger believes he should recieve a large bonus for his success, when he only recieves £35,000.
The disruption is clear in the symbolism of rogers increasingly anxious body language, and when he says ‘what use is thirty grand to anybody’
How does barthes semiotics theory apply to capital?
Barthes argued that producers include hermenutic / enigma codes in media products which create mystery.
This is clearly shown in capital where the show starts with a man in a hood who is taking photos of houses late at night.
Another scene which creates mystery is where graham visited his grandma, he can be seen wearing a hood and the camera angles and music created a sense of mystery.
How are stereotypes used in capital?
The stereotype of an asian family running a corner shop is a stereotype.
How does capital validate Gilroys claims?
Since london is such a multicultural city capital features lots of different nationalities.
Some of these representations play with the stereotypes and identities, positioning the audience to question the constructs.
As paul gilroy argued, there is no cultural absolutism because national and ethnic identities are not fixed
How can barthes theory be applied to Capital?
the text-based sign ‘we want what you have’ that characters are receiving on postcards can be seen as a hermeneutic code which creates a sense of mystery.
The phrase also connotes a deeper social anxiety of the fear that others (immigrants, the poor) may take what the wealthy feel entitled to
How can Neale theory be applied to Capital?
Capital can be seen as a hybrid genre of social realist drama and political thriller.
Capital adheres to social realism through its portrayal of class, economic, multicultural tensions in london.
The show can fit into the political thriller genre through elements of suspense such as the anonymous postcards
How can Strauss theory be applied to Capital?
the rich vs the poor is a huge binary opposition in capital between the wealthy residents of Pepys Road like roger, and the working class or immigrant residents like Ahmed and Quentina.
This opposition highlights the economic divide that has grown within modern cities, particularly in London
How can Baudrillard theory be applied to Capital?
Pepys road appears at first as a prosperous neigbourhood, but the underlying conflicts between the residents suggest that this ideal image of wealth is a constructed narrative and a simulation that doesn’t reflect the real lives of many residents who struggle with poverty, therefore creating a heightened reality
How can Todorovs theory be applied to Capital?
- Equilibrium is life on Pepys road before the postcards,
- disruption is the arrival of the postcards
- new equilibrium is a new state of balance however there is still continued tension such as the wealth inequality, immigration struggles
How can Propps theory be applied to Capital?
- Hero is quentina as she has to navigate the complex social and economic issues in life
- villian is the economic system which creates inequality
- the donor are the postcards which are catalysts for change
How can Halls representation theory be applied to Capital?
In Capital, stereotypes are present in the representation of social groups, such as immigrants like Quentina and Ahmed are depicted as working hard to survive in a system that marginalizes them.
Ahmed and his family owning and running a Cornershop is a stereotypical depiction of Asian immigrants and families, therefore reinforcing dominant ideologies
How can Gauntletts theory be applied to Capital?
Collective identity can be seen through class identity with the different characters such as the working class like Ahmed and Quentina compared to the wealthy such as Roger.
Audiences may decode the characters struggles and expereiences and relate these experiences to their own lives, forming their identities around issues like economic inequality
