'The Face' - Media Reviews

DigitalSpy:

Naomi Campbell is the latest big name from the modelling world to try her hand at reality TV, launching Sky Living's latest attempt at a 'Supermodel X Factor'.

Model reality shows in the UK have a patchy record and that's probably putting it politely. They can never truly compete with their US counterparts when it comes to hideously mean judges, catty contestants and ludicrous melodrama over having to get your hair cut a couple of inches shorter.

Sky Living's signing of Campbell, modelling's most notorious and intriguing character, is probably the last roll of the dice for the format. If Campbell can't make a show about models interesting then I seriously doubt anybody can.

There are some promising early signs that The Face can be more than Next Top Model-lite.

Firstly, its format takes on the classic Voice twist and encourages the judges - Campbell, Erin O'Connor and Caroline Winberg - to fight it out for the girls they want on their team. This spices up the usual judges' chit chat about the girls' looks, which is frankly a bit tedious, and turns the show into a much more entertaining bragging competition between the three super-cocky mentors.

Secondly, it's quickly realised that having beautiful girls taking part is only half the deal with a TV show. They've also included some hideous individuals (think Katie Waissel to the power of Jedward and you'll have the irritation levels of one of the aspiring models) who will make hate-watching every week incredibly easy.

The biggest stumbling block for any TV show about modelling is the puzzle of taking the job - standing, walking, pouting - and making it something that viewers will give a flying one about.

Watching a gaggle of wannabe models bitch and moan for 10 weeks provides a relative amount of amusement, but The Face will need to find a way to spruce up the stereotypical model show challenges.

Take your make-up off and have a photo. Take your clothes off and pose. Have a picture with an animal. And repeat.

If The Face can't figure out a way of dealing with that problem then it will require more than a bit of 'mad Naomi' to save it from the telly trash can.

 

(http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/realitybites/a518344/the-face-naomi-campbells-new-show-is-the-voice-for-models.html)

Naomi Campbell, Erin O’Connor and Caroline Winberg form an elegant triumvirate of judges-come-mentors in ‘The Face’, Sky Living’s new modelling reality series. This opening episode pitches us straight into the eliminations. There are no car-crash TV auditions to sit through in this new breed of streamlined reality – we don’t have time to get to know these contestants!

Twenty-four gazelle-like girls are picked in advance of the programme, reduced to 12 by the end of the show. Similar to BBC1’s ‘The Voice’, in that Campbell, O’Connor and Winberg may choose the girl they want for their team, but the final decision is taken by the contestants themselves: the faux fur will surely fly at some point.

This is clearly Naomi Campbell’s showcase but, refreshingly, she seems to have no desire to turn into the sanguine Tyra Banks of ‘America’s Next Top Model’. Her catwalk demonstration is the highlight of the show and proves why, at 43, she still doesn’t need to get out of bed for just anything.

(http://www.timeout.com/london/tv-reviews/the-face)

Realism & Lacan Theory

Realism: The techniques by which a media text represents ideas and images that are held to have a true relationship with the actual world around us. Realism means different things in different texts - realism in animation (eg the movement of single hairs in computer animation) means something entirely different to realism in soap opera (eg the depiction of people eating breakfast and talking with their mouths full). it is important to assess how much a text strives for realism, how much audiences are expected to think it is realistic.

(http://www.mediaknowall.com/gcse/keyconceptsgcse/keycon.php?pageID=keyterms)

By definition, reality TV is essentially unscripted programming that doesn't employ actors and focuses on footage of real events or situations. Reality shows also often use a host to run the show or a narrator to tell the story or set the stage of events that are about to unfold. The Face use the 3 Top Model Judges as their hosts, as they explain to the girls what they will be doing next, the audience find out at the same time. Unlike scripted shows like sitcoms, dramas and newscasts, reality TV does not rely on writers and actors, and much of the show is run by producers and a team of editors. Because of this, it can be a very affordable programming option from a production standpoint. However you could argue that The Face does have scripting through picking specific points to show the audience of what the judges are telling them, especially when it comes to the challenges as it is almost certain this has been pre-written before being voiced to the girls. 

The defining aspect of reality TV is  the manner in which it is shot. Whether the show takes place in a real setting with real people (much like a documentary), shoots in front of a live studio audience that participates in the program, or uses hidden surveillance, reality TV relies on the camera capturing everything as it happens. The Face uses mainly the former as they are real girls in actual situations but they are not 'everyday' places in most occasions with photo-shoots and fashion agencies playing a main role. Also there is an element of hidden surveillance when they live in a house together as a lot of this is recorded for the audience's entertainment to get a feel for the friendship and leadership dynamic among the girls, this is similar to programmes such as "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here" and "Big Brother".

The Face has been created with certain concepts in mind and the girls auditioned and put through into the competition are there for a reason, while the footage may be real, it is usually extremely edited to fit the brief, genre or audience they are aiming for. It is filmed over 8/9 weeks with 8 episodes being shown, and each episode is 45 minutes therefore the amount of time spent filming the girls is no-where near what we're actually being shown. It becomes edited so that we only see the "best bits" for example certain clips of girls saying things will be put in places to add dramatic effect and set it up to be an interesting challenge as they might say they have a certain fear of something or never experienced it. This is called 'frankenbiting' where they edit together conversations extracts or sound bites to create a whole new dialogue or conversation, thus essentially creating alliances, fights and relationships among the judges or girls.  Often the girls actions will be taken out of context and send a misleading message to the audience. 

Reality shows typically don't have scripts, but there is often a shooting script or an outline that details aspects of an episode or part of the show. For example, in The Face there might be directions for certain challenges, tasks and camera angles and information the Judges must give to the camera to inform the audience. Reality producers and editors have a lot of control over what happens on the show, just by the fact that they've put people together in certain situations, and they're controlling what footage gets aired and what doesn't. 

Also another thing that separates reality TV from scripted programmes is the use of actors or not, reality TV is supposedly real people however after the shows have finished and background research has taken place, it becomes apparent that these real girls on the show have previous history of modelling or they're out-of-work at the moment and just want to go on this programme to get themselves a noticed by other brands that were previously un-reachable.

Lacan Theory

The Gaze is a psychoanalytical term brought into popular usage by Jacques Lacan. It describes the relationship of the subject with the desire to look and awareness that one can be viewed. The gaze can be motivated by the subject's desire to control the object it sees, and an object that can likewise capture and hold the subject's eye. The term 'gaze' is often defined as looking long and intently with affection at a subject. The gaze in this case is a relationship and not something that can be performed. A person who determines a sense of themselves as an individual element in the world makes up the idea of the gaze. The concept of the gaze is also a central part of theories looking within modernity. The gaze has affected historical, economical, and cultural environments.

(http://keca2media.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/the-gaze-jacques-lacan.html)

Lacan Theory can be applied to The Face in which the judges and models are very aware of how they are represented to the audience, it appropriately comes with the 'territory' of modelling with having to be aware of your facial expression and body pose when in front of a camera for photo shoots or runway walking therefore the majority of these women are already aware of their actual body. How they are actually represented which is becoming more and more what the producer wants them to be for the audience is sometimes different to how they actually are due to post-production editing. For example the 3 judges have all got their characteristics and the audience can already anticipate what is going to happen through these traits, Naomi is very demanding, headstrong and tough with her group however Caroline & Erin are much softer in their approach and want their models to enjoy the experience. Therefore we can expect a rivalry between these two judges and Naomi due to how they've been presented to us within one episode and these judges understand that this is how they are being portrayed to the audience so they might emphasise this. This then questions the actual genre name as it is not so much a reality, more of a scripted baseline that is then given 'free-run' through the programme but still has a reasonably strict chronological order.

Lacan Theory

Lacan Theory

 

The French Psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan, an early and influential theorist of child development, found the concept of the gaze important in what he termed "the mirror stage", whereupon children gaze at a mirror image of themselves (usually an image of themselves in an actual mirror, but a twin brother or sister can also function as a mirror image) and use this image to derive a degree of coordination over their physical movements. Lacan therefore linked the concept of the gaze to the development of individual human agency. To this end, he transformed the concept of the gaze into a dialetic between what he called the ideal-ego and the ego-ideal. The ideal-ego is the image of imaginary self-identification - in other words, the idealized image that the person imagines themselves to be or aspires to be; whilst the ego-ideal is the imaginary gaze of another person who gazes upon the ideal-ego. An example would be if a famous rockstar (a category of identification which would function as the ideal-ego) secretly hoped that the school bully who tormented them as a child was now aware of his or her subsequent success and fame (with the imaginery, fantasmatic figure of the bully functioning as the ego-ideal).

'The Face' Research

Primary text: The Face

Why do style programmes exploit realism in order maintain audience interest in their genre?

First Celebrity Show - The Clothes Show

The Clothes Show is a British television show about fashion that can currently be seen weeknights on Really. It was formerly broadcast on BBC One from 1986 to 2000.

The Clothes Show was first broadcast on 13 October 1986, with Breakfast Time's Selina Scott and designer Jeff Banks as its first hosts. The show combined reports from the catwalks, with items on how to achieve the catwalk look, without breaking the bank. Selina and Jeff were later joined by Caryn Franklin (a former Fashion Editor and co-Editor of International style bible i-D magazine), and once Selina left, she took over as Jeff's main co-host.

Such was the success of the show, that in 1989 the annual Clothes Show Live event was launched at Birmingham's NEC, and later a magazine to accompany the programme. The programme continued on the BBC right up until the late 1990s, with other presenters over the years including Margherita Taylor, Tim Vincent, Richard Jobson and Brenda Emmanus. Series producers included Collette Foster and Jane Lomas, who had been a presenter on the earliest shows. James Strong, Mike Prince, Mark Westcott and Ann Wilson were amongst the directors. The Clothes Show Live event continues to be held annually at the beginning of each December.

On 7 August 2006, The Sun newspaper reported that The Clothes Show was to be resurrected after six years and would be shown on UKTV Style, hosted by Louise Redknapp, Caryn Franklin and Brendan Courtney. The programme moved from UKTV Style to a new channel called Really, after UKTV Style was rebranded Home on 30 April 2009.

(http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/news-features/TMG10101041/The-Clothes-Show-returns.html)
(http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/lifestyle/nostalgia/clothes-show-whole-new-genre-1350903)(http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/new-fashion-series-for-bbc/1179738.article)
 

First Competition Show - America's Next Top Model

America's Next Top Model (abbreviated ANTM and Top Model) is an American reality television series and interactive competition that premiered on May 20, 2003. The program has aired nineteen cycles, and sees several women compete for the title of "America's Next Top Model", providing them with an opportunity to begin their career in the modelling industry. Its premise was originated with supermodel and television personality Tyra Banks, who additionally serves as its executive producer and presenter.
America's Next Top Model employs a panel of three judges, who critique contestants' progress throughout the competition. The original panel consisted of  Tyra Banks, Janice Dickinson, Beau Quillian, and Kimora Lee Simmons. Since the nineteenth cycle, the panel consists of Tyra Banks, Kelly Cutrone, and Rob Evans. The series was among the highest-rated program on UPN, and was the highest-rated show on The CW from 2007 to 2010.Advertisers pay $61,315 per 30-second slot during the 2011–12 television season, the highest of any series on The CW.

(http://www.cwtv.com/shows/americas-next-top-model/about)

(http://www.glamour.com/fashion/blogs/dressed/2012/02/kelly-cutrone-interview-antm-a.html)

 

What have people in the media said about this programme?

 

Naomi Campbell brings superdiva drama as she leads Karolina Kurkova and Coco Rocha in Oxygen's new "Voice"-like model competition

Oxygen's new supermodel competition series The Face mixes Top Model with The Voice, where twelve hopefuls compete individually and in teams coached by Naomi Campbell, Karolina Kurkova and Coco Rocha. Refreshingly, the series doesn't waste its inaugural episodes with auditions, which tend to drag. The Face immediately hopes into action by having the twelve featured girls ready to compete, and already placed with their model mentors.

 

Throughout the first series, the girls will be put through competitions similar to those seen on Top Model -- narrative fashion shoots, putting together outfits on the fly -- and will collaborate with fashion industry greats, TV personalities (like talk show host Wendy Williams) and others, hoping ultimately to be awarded a contract with ULTA beauty.
Photographer Nigel Barker serves as the host, but is removed from the real drama (at least as of the first episode), which takes place within the New York City loft the competitors share. The judges, too, bring their own spice to things -- which is not surprising at all given the inclusion of Naomi Campbell. Campbell's infamously strong personality and sensitivity to any slights against her team puts her in direct confrontation with the other judges, particularly the sweet and earnest Kurkova, who is probably the most balanced and the best mentor in the group. As for the third mentor, Rocha is, to start, on the fringe. While Kurkova nurtures the talents of her team and Campbell gives tough love, Rocha seems in her own world, wanting to shoehorn her team into following her own brazen style, so far with mixed results.
It's clear the supermodels populated their teams with girls who most mirrored themselves, which means that Campbell's is already primed for drama. The girls come from all over the world and represent a range of backgrounds and ambitions, but Campbell's team established themselves the quickest by having some of the most intense personalities in the competition, though she herself outshines them all. "I'm a little bit afraid of her," Alexandria from Belarus says during the group photo shoot. Her instincts are not wrong.
There are prizes awarded for every contest -- from a $5,000 shopping spree at Top Shop to a featured photo in W magazine in the first episode -- but on the flip side, at the end of each hour the mentor of the winning team from the group competition is able to eliminate one member from one of the remaining two teams (chosen by their own mentors). While the rest of the episode took place at whirlwind speed, things ground to a halt during the elimination round, which isn't surprising but did make me check the clock. The twist is the aftermath, wherein the mentor who made the elimination must face her other two supermodel mentors -- and potentially their wrath.
The Face borrows plenty of concepts from other modeling and competition shows, but it manages to throw enough fashion and dramatic interest at viewers to be engaging. Plus, many of the girls have the personalities or backstories that will make their journeys interesting to follow. Besides, if all else fails, the show has bought itself insurance: leave the camera on Naomi Campbell long enough, and something is bound to happen worth watching.

(http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/face-tv-review-420478)

The Face Blog

 

http://the-face.oxygen.com/#fbid=DimNx56FZ_7

 

 

Lacan Theory

 

 





Audience Theory - 'The Face'

Uses & Gratifications: The audience is likely to watch this programme for a variety of reasons, for example diversion/escapism as the programme is about models and the fashion industry so for many it is an exclusive look at a different lifestyle. People who enjoy these programmes may want to watch for surveillance reasons to learn more about this industry and how it works. Social interaction plays a big role in modern programmes as the website for 'The Face' has already demonstrated that they will be using hashtags for the programme name and also each top model judge so that the audience can talk about which team they might want to be on or prefer. Finally competition surrounds the whole programme with the three judges and the idea of having the models compete to become 'The Face' of a beauty brand, the judges have the power to remove models if they want to stop another judge from getting their own girl, therefore this suggests that the programme may be quite tactical opposed to actually finding the correct model for what they need for the brand.

Gerbner Cultivation Theory: From watching 'The Face', the audience may get ideas that influence their view of the everyday world such as the idea that models are 'catty' and spiteful towards others, which in many cases is not true, some may not even be of a high class. Also the model's lifestyle appears very glamourised and unrealistic of what working models actually do, this may make some of the audience want to follow a similar career path because of the way this programme presents itself. 

The Cultivation/Culmination Theory: This is where we become desensitised to what is shown in the media. In the programme 'The Face' we may be desensitised to how the judges criticise the girls work, for example they will often be very harsh and offensive and we may not notice this as much as if it was happening in front of us as it's part of the programme and we believe it's due to the cut-throat fashion industry. Often the extravagance of the props or photoshoot studios aren't looked into as much, such as the expensive clothes, accessories. Props that I've seen on America's Next Top Model are animals such as dogs, snakes, tarantulas, tigers, leopards ect. but we don't realise the danger of these so much as we believe they are trained and that it's just for a fashion image so there is no 'real danger'. 

'The Face' Information

Audience Expectation & Genre:
Audiences will use prior knowledge of the genre to anticipate whether or not they are likely to enjoy the text. For example, my own text has been compared with the similar programmes such as ‘America’s Next Top Model’ which is under a Reality Competition TV genre alongside sub genres of Beauty, Fashion & Celebrities. Therefore people who enjoy these styles of programmes are likely to already want to watch this new and current programme and others who are interested by it and want to know more may be inclined to view the first episode. Many people are already comparing this text with the Top Model programme above so it must have similar aspects to achieve this.
However many people will look at this style of text and immediately reject it due to the genres, for example if people do not know the celebrities or disagree with programmes that include women who may be seen as sexualised objects in the fashion industry. Previous programmes such as Top Model have been seen as controversial due to the challenges and photo-shoots that they have to take part in, also many people are disturbed by the ‘ideal image’ of women having to be 5’8”+ and averaging 100lbs in this type of industry.
 

Uses and gratifications:

This target audience is likely to watch this programme for a variety of reasons, for example diversion/escapism as the programme is about models and the fashion industry so for many it is an exclusive look at a different lifestyle. People who enjoy these programmes may want to watch for surveillance reasons to learn more about this industry and how it works. Social interaction plays a big role in modern programmes as the website for ‘The Face’ has already demonstrated that they will be using hashtags for the programme name and also each top model so that the audience can talk about which team they might want to be on or prefer. Finally competition surrounds the whole programme with the three judges and the idea of having the models compete to become ‘The Face’ of a beauty brand, the judges have the power to remove models if they want to stop another judge from getting their own girl, therefore this suggests that the programme may be quite tactical opposed to actually finding the correct model for what they need for the brand.

Cultural Codes & Symbolic Codes:
The cultural and symbolic codes of 'The Face' are things such as the people, for exampe the use of top models in the advert who are well known and are particularly knowledgeable due to their time in this industry, we recognise these celebrities and get an idea of an reality TV Genre. When we see the clothes, they look modern and high fashion which suggests some sort of fashion centered genre, and as an audience we accept this due to previous knowledge of similar programmes. Other things the audience recognise is the setting, such as it being in studios, catwalks and warehouse style buildings so this reaffirdms the idea of modelling, fashion and beauty.

Semiotic Codes:
The mise-en-scene is in a studio setting which has connotations of photo shoots and modelling, also there are catwalks shown which tells us there will be clothing and fashion shows, all relating to the iconography of a model/competition programme. The denotations of the programme are that it's a model competition with three top model judges who get to choose girls for real advert campaigns but also can 'sabotage' the other judges by 'stealing' their girls and not letting them through to the next round. Connotations of this preview for the programme could include expecting drama, from the emphasis placed on the tension and competition between the model judges, also knowing that some models will do better than others because it is a competition and some of the girls will have to go home atr some point, because of this the audience will anticipate the different challenges they have to do and wonder how the girls will fair in them.

Institution:

Sky Living is a British television channel owned by BSkyB, who purchased the Living group in 2010. Originally launched as UK Living in 1993, the channel, as of February 2011 as been Sky Living. The channel's programmes were mainly aimed at women and young adults however new shows such as CSI, Boston Legal & Close to home, the channel is now broadening its audience to a wider range of demographics including men aged 18 - 45.
One of the most watched shows includes America's Next Top Model, a similar style of programme to the upcoming series 'The Face'. Sky Living is a popular channel with over 11 million households using/watching it and they have been one of the top broadcasts for a long period of time therefore they understand their brand and audience so they are able to import programmes that they know their demographic will enjoy and also advertise them in a way that re-inforces this, plus possibly attracting a wider audience of people who watch this particular genre. Sky Living only shows modern programmes or programmes that have been around for a long time but with brand new series' being shown therefore they are a good platform for 'The Face' which is current, this is shown through the styling; high fashion and modelling and also the social networking attributes such as the hastags for Twitter to start conversations about the model judges and also they are showing a 'Like us on' Facebook option to have their programme more widespread so there is a higher chance of people seeing it.  

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