Final blog - media product - video diary

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12bkWTdWhRY

If the link doesn't work, them I have embedded the video here (It seems as though the full widescreen video image doesn't appear here, only a part of the screen, so follow the link above)

Post 22

This is the final image in a series of images of an old mill in Bradford which I took originally for the 30 images project last semester, which I am having to re-use instead of taking new photographs due to unforeseen circumstances.

Finally, the final image is of the site as it would appear to look at night. This is probably the most powerful image of the mill and its cooling tower, silhouetted against the (nearly) night sky, with the moon in the background. The psychological effect of the moon and using a little light in night-time scenes can also be applied here as well. I described what I mean by this in my previous blog.

The framing of this image is to make the mill, cooling tower and moon in the night sky all immediately noticeable to the viewer, while practically ignoring the edges of the image, as again they aren't important except to help "frame" the image, otherwise the image would be zoomed in and wouldn't look as good.

Post 21

Now I'm starting to come to the end of the photos I have chosen to upload here from my collection of photos I took last semester as part of the "30 images" coursework.

This photo was actually shot at sunset and it was not yet night-time, but as it was still winter at the time, the moon decided to come out and make its presence known anyway. The building where the moon is seen shining through has its top floor burnt out, as apparently the top floor caught fire a few months back.

Even though this image was not photographed at night-time, I suppose it does give the impression of being photographed at night-time because of the psychological effect of the moon and the fact that the human mind isn't infallible when it comes to recognising night-time scenes, which is why in TV shows in scenes that are supposedly "totally dark", there is always a small studio lamp switched on so that the camera can see something. Not many people seem to acknowledge that.

The framing of this image is done in such a way that the moon shining through the burnt-out windows and the top of the burnt-out building are the things which immediately grab the audience's attention, with the night sky being noticed next, with the rest of the building being noticed last as that has absolutely no importance at all to the rest of the picture. the only reason i included some more of the building in this photo than was originally needed is because the image would look rather bad if it didn't. there are certain requirements for a photo like this, and if there is too much headroom or the camera (which was a non-SLR Panasonic Lumix digital camera) will start to take blurry images if zoomed in too much.

Post 20

This image is another in my series of images relating to an old disused mill here in Bradford.

This image is a rather conventional photo turned into art, probably usually seen in the average person's photo album when they have decided to photograph something very tall, such s a statue or a skyscraper or something.

Again, this photo really doesn't have much in it to comment on, really, while it definetly isn't a boring photo.

The only thing I can really think of to say about this photo is that if you put your imagination to it, the chimney could be thought of as a road in the Grand Canyon, the road in the middle of nowhere being seen from the driver's point of view.

Once again, this is another photo of mine revolving around an old, disused mill here in Bradford, these images forming the part of my blog where I have to post my own images.

Unlike the previous picture, this has so much more going for it, and so much more to write about.

For a start, you can evidently see the new in the foreground, old in the background, as seen in the last photograph i discussed, however there are so many more things to interest the viewer in this photo.

First of all is the rather interesting angle which the photo was taken from, which makes the chimney in the background look like it is adjoining the old people's home in the foreground, rather than being placed much further away than the viewer would probably think. This gives the viewer a false sense of depth in the image, because the chimney tower is actually a lot further away than it seems.

And then there is the horizon in the background, making me think back to the very basic scientific principles, that if i can see locations over there, then, supposedly, people in those locations can see the mill and its tower. I can certainly see the mill and tower from my flat in Dennis Bellamy Halls, on the other side of Bradford!

The way that the image is framed is to still make the chimney be the first eye-catching thing to the viewer, but still making the houses in the foreground instantly noticeable to the viewer, while they don't necessarily pay attention to them first, preferring to look at the chimney or cooling tower first.

Post 19

This is the nineteenth of my own images which I am using for these blog posts. Once again, as with all of these photos, the image is based around an old mill in Bradford.

This image is another image to do with regeneration, because of the old in the background and the new in the foreground. All in all, though this image really doesn't have that many interesting features, which is why it is difficult to write a post about this one.

Post 18

This image is the 18th in a series of blog posts using images I took last November for University coursework as their theme.

This image, like all of the images of the old mill in Bradford, is a silhouette. Silhouettes, to me, can show a stark contrast between two different things, let it be the past or the present, two different industries, or the difference between black and white.

This image has rather a Coronation Street-style element to it. What I mean by that is the shots of rooftops, lamp-posts, chimney post and television aerials, which looks impressive silhouetted against the sunset.

Another good effect I like about this photo is the angle at which it was taken from. The aerials look as though they are pointing roughly towards the cooling tower for reception, which can give the photo a sort of abstract feeling about it. It almost has an impossible art feeling about it, because the chimney also acts as a television transmitter, as the aerials look as though they are pointing towards it.

The way this photo is framed is to fill the photo with everything that the photographer wants to be in it, instead of everything that's important in the photo being clustered up in the centre of the image while the edges of the image give less important details about the photo to the viewer.

Post 17

The 17th post in this series, will once again look at a photo of the top of the chimney tower silhouetted against the sky in the background.

This picture was taken towards the beginning to middle of winter, at sunset, to catch the look of a sunset. Some people might claim that it might be easier to photograph such an image at sunrise and then falsely claim it was a sunset job, but most people would be able to tell that this photo was definitely taken at sunset.

Again, the silhouette provides a stark contrast between black and white, giving off impressions that the image could have been taken in the past, in an age when there was only black and white photography.

Also, as mentioned previously in another photograph, there is a rather interesting effect with the clouds breaking up and the top of the chimney, which can give off a good effect of smoke still rising from the chimney, like it once did.

The way that this is framed is to have the main subject directly in the centre, while having the old mill and the sky around the edge, not distracting the viewer but giving a sense of place and time.

Post 16

This is another in my series of photographs of an old, disused mill in Bradford and is another one that compares the old industrialised way of living with the modern capitalist society.

Of all the photos that use the LIDL supermarket to contrast with the mill and cooling tower, this one has to be the most striking and most effective.

As I said in my previous post, the fact that the LIDL signage is much closer to the camera suggests that the industrial revolution, when the mill and cooling tower were probably built is far in the past and that capitalism has taken over, while old buildings of local or historical interest are flattened to make way for big businesses with no consideration for those that want to see the building kept, either because it's old and they happen to be interested in architecture or the building may have some kind of sentimental value.

The angle that this image is taken from makes it all the more obvious that an economy based on idustry is well and truly in the past, although it does still have a very large workforce today. The main tool in the image used for creating this feeling or thought is the angle of the LIDL sign placed closest to the camera. The camera has to look up at the sign at sich an angle that the sign looks taller than the mill and the cooling tower, the fact that this LIDL sign is taller than the cooling tower is the opposite to what I stated in my previous post. In that I suggested that that photo was for those who know that one day industrialisation will return with a vengeance. This photo seems to take it from a different point of view: thet socialism or comunism is definetly not returning.

Post 15

The next in my series of blogs based around photographs of a mill here in Bradford mainly focuses on what the redevelopment site is being redeveloped for.

During the 1980s, thanks to the policies of the Margaret Thatcher government, there was a significant change in the British economy, with a move away from the old industrialised economy that we were reliant on to a "service" economy, such as services and businesses like LIDL, a smaller-sized supermarket chain. This photo is one of the photos in this selection that represents this.

In this photo, the larger chimney denotes that for many socialists and Northern employers, one day industrialisation will return and triumph over the shadow left by greedy capitalist corporations like LIDL. However, the fact that the mill and its cooling tower are further away from the camera than the LIDL store, to me, means that the old industrialised businesses are in the past, with capitalism now here to stay.

Post 14

The fourth image in my series of blogs based on photos I have taken is also another image of the Bradford mill that I photographed.

This is another silhouette shot featuring the cooling tower, although this time the photo was taken at much less of an angle. This is so it doesn't give the impression of being "powerful", instead it is taken from how a member of the general public would have seen it in the past or the present, the image is much less angled and the photo is taken from the other side of the main road which runs alongside the old mill.

Another point to not in this image is the use of clouds as a background to the image, as I think it adds to the effect of "smoke" in the sky, which is what would have billowed out of that chimney many years ago when the mill was still in use.

I think that the framing is done in such a way that even though there is enough room round the edges to give enough information of the time, place etc, the viewer's attention is drawn immediately to the chimney with the sunshine attempting to break through in the background.

Post 13

Like the previous image, this photo is of the site of the mill silhouetted against a late afternoon/early evening sky towards the end of winter, except that this time, the camera is focused purely on the cooling tower, rather than on the whole site.

Also, like the previous image, many features of the previous photograph are seen again here in this image. The silhouette of the cooling tower, for example, was seen in the previous photo. Also, this image, like the previous image, includes a weed or dry grass to suggest that the area that this cooling tower is in hasn't had any upkeep, probably since the mill closed.

The framing of the image is done in such a way as to keep the viewer's attention on the cooling tower and its silhouetted effect, while still managing to give a good idea of the surroundings. I think (although I personally can't see this part of the photo very clearly) that there is a new housing estate to the bottom left of the image, with some smaller dilapidated buildings on the right, suggesting that this cooling tower is located in an are of redevelopment or "regeneration". This gives a sense of place, which can be essential to the viewer to provide a background to this image in their mind, and also probably to help them appreciate the photograph. The sky in the background gives a sense of time, although some might say the image was taken at dawn, most would definetly say it was photographed at sunset and the weed gives a sense of the type of surroundings which the cooling tower is in.

Extra objects seen around the edge of the cooling tower, while also providing some more interest to the casual viewer are essential to give the photo a sense of place and time and to add other things like to suggest that the area is dilapidated but undergoing redevelopment

Post 12

This is the second image in my series of photos focusing on an old mill in Bradford.

This image sees the mill and its cooling tower silhouetted against a late winter late afternoon/early evening sky.

The first aspect about this image is the powerful silhouette, which gives much greater effect to the image and the psychological effect of the mill and the cooling tower towering over the image. The silhouette also adds another feeling to the photo, which is hard to describe. The stark contrast between light and dark in this photo very much reminds me of cinematic film or photographs taken when this mill would still have been in use, so the silhouetter, in a way, could suggest the age of the mill and the cooling tower - as in this photo, darkness is against a stark contrast with light.

The second aspect of this image is the psychological effect on the viewer because of the low angle that the photo was shot from. The towering effect of the mill and the cooling tower suggests, to me, that these buildings were used for industries that were once powerful and made sure that Britain was the workmanship of the world, at the time, in the industrial revolution, the engineering industries such as steelmelting, towered over everything else. The mill represents the cotton industry, while the cooling tower represents the more hardened industries such as steelmelting.

The third aspect of this photo would work better if there wasn't a new housing estate in the background, ruining the effect. The effect of the wild grass directly in front of the camera gives the effect that this is either in the middle of nowhere, so no attention has been given to the upkeep of the site, or that this is is in a heavily built-up area (which it is) and it is still being left to rot. Either way, the grass directly in front of the camera gives the impression that this site has not been looked after, probably because the current owners of the site don't wish to waste extra money and time contributing to the general upkeep of the site when the mill and cooling tower are probably going to be demolished in the near future anyway. It would be a pure waste of time.

Post 11

I was supposed to take some fresh images of my own for the following blog posts, but due to unforeseen circumstances (involving the human equivalent of pond life), I am not able to bring those photos to the wonderful world of the internet, so I am having to use some images I took for a previous piece of coursework last semester.

The theme of these photographs was old buildings and architecture, mainly focusing on this old, disused mill here in Bradford.

This first image is a shot of the mill and its surroundings how it would have appeared something like 50 years ago. While the older terraced shops you can see in the photo are obviously still there, there is significant regeneration going on in this area, so at one point, this building would have been surrounded by buildings like this.

This image is one of a number of these images that shows how the mill is integrated into the lives of the locals, because the style of the mill was similar or the same as the terraced shops before they had pebbledash placed all over the front of them. Also, the mill would have been built with the terraced shops and houses built around it. Many inner-cities of the time were built like this, with the houses and other local amenities built around the mill, which would have been in the centre of all the action. It was where most of the people who lived on that estate would have worked. They would have left school at the age of 14 and gone straight into the (dangerous) workhouse.

The framing of the image suggests to me that the buildings in the foreground are the buildings that are still in use and are staying for the foreseeable future, whereas the mill is disused and so it fades more and more into the past as time goes on and its demolition gets nearer, and as the mill is further in the distance in this photo, that suggests that soon the mill will be in the distant past as well.

Blog entry 10

This, the tenth entry for this blog, is the poster which David Cameron hopes will be of most importance to the public in the upcoming election: cutting benefits for the work-shy i.e. those who are able to work but refuse to do so.

The way that this image is styled makes it seem that the large white words in the poster are exactly what Mr Cameron is saying at the exact moment that he was photographed.

(Image taken from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/election/article-1267465/General-Election-2010-Cameron-benefits-threat-workshy-declares-The-free-ride-over.html)

All in all, this is rather a bland image compared to the others, with nothing redeeming to make it stand out. There is nothing of interest to point out in these blogs as it is just a photo of the party leader, the intention in very big clear letters, with a "Vote Conservative" conveniently placed at the bottom of the image to make the reader read it after they had just read the main point of the poster. The fact that this poster is boring and has nothing redeeming is redeeming in itself, as all the other posters or images that I have blogged about previously had some unusual design trait or traits that made them stand out.

The poster seems to be getting rid of the "unique" design ideas for the other Conservative posters in this general election campaign, yet still keeps the idea of keeping the Tory leader to the left, as the basis of the idea for the poster, with the main point in clear lettering to the right.

So, not much can be said of this photo, rather a weak effort to win the electorate's vote, especially as mocking the tory posters was so much fun, this one seems almost un-mockable.

Post 9 - Spitting Image puppet special.

The ninth post in this blog will focus on the fact that in the run-up to the election, the former Spitting Image production team decided to make latex puppet versions of the current three main party leaders (despite attempts a few years ago to make a comeback, ITV have repeatedly refused to bring the show back on cost grounds. The original show cost between £200,000 and £300,000 per episode to make, and as ratings hit an average of 15 million by 1986, it would bring in advertising revenues of around £500,000 for the advertising break before the show, during the show and after the show. not so in today's multi-channel, multi-platform environment)

(Image taken from http://www.radiotimes.com/content/features/galleries/spitting-image/01/)

The satirical comment being made in this picture is that the three main party leaders are playing a game of cards, as until the first of the three TV election debates, the opinion polls suggested that there was no overall majority in people's preference for political party, there was no guarantee who would win the next election. there is still no guarantee as i type, but the first TV election debate did produce an overall majority for the Liberal Democrats. However, there are still two more TV election debates to go, so a Liberal Democrat victory at the upcoming election cannot be guaranteed at this point - Nick Clegg has to prove to the public that he is worthy of the job of Prime Minister by these TV election debates and by the other, older forms of campaigning around the country.

This image neatly shows that it is not always the Prime Minister in charge of their party, especially its election campaign. Peter Mandelson, seen as a butler in the background, is seen to be whispering tips to the Prime Minister on how to win the card game - a swipe that he can win elections. Peter Mandelson, Labour MP for Hartlepool 1992-2004 was responsible for the rebranding the party saw in 1986, in preparation for the 1987 general election (at the time, he was a Labour party official, not a Labour MP), and then again at the 1997 general election, during which John Major's Conservative party, who had been in power for almost 18 years at that point, took a pasting (so to speak) from the rebranded "New" Labour party, led by Tony Blair.

"Mandy", as he is sometimes known as, has become well-known for resigning from the cabinet twice, the second time he also resigned from his constituency, leaving the Labour party for a job as European Commissioner for Trade. In 2008, he returned to the cabinet, without a constituency, and made a life peer by Gordon Brown. This was somewhat ample timing, as Mr Brown's personal popularity was sinking at that time, because he had bottled out of a general election at the beginning of his premiership and also, more importantly, because of the world financial crisis.

The image is framed so that the most important objects of the image, the puppets of leading politicians playing a card game, is at the centre of the image, as the image is wanting to show that it is relating to people not being able to guess who will win the outcome at the upcoming election.

Unfortunately, once more, I cannot think of any ideas for my work that can be generated from this image.

Post 8

My eighth post in this blog is another spoof of the Conservative Party's election campaign posters. This one is another spoof of the "we can't go on like this" poster. This also seems to be produced by another left-winger who remembers the horrors of the Thatcher years (although I personally can't remember the Thatcher years myself, being only three months old at the time she resigned in November 1990). Many today who hated her at the time (she has been described as being like Marmite - you either love her or you hate her. I must be the only person in the world when it comes to sitting on the fence when Thatcher is discussed so to speak.) would describe her as an emotionless, evil woman, much like the Daleks in BBC TV's sci-fi programme Doctor Who, which is the point coming across in this parody of the famous Tory campaign poster.

(Image taken from http://www.mydavidcameron.com/posters/seb1)

However, Norman Fowler (his roles in Thatcher's and Major's Conservative cabinets has been described in the previous blog) said in a book of his, "A Political Suicide" (which charts the "extraordinary" path of the Conservative party, from immense popularity in 1979, through the rocky Thatcher years and the numerous political scandals, the tiredness of the public of conservatives in power and the weak John Major leadership of the early and mid-1990s) that this view of Thatcher by the Thatcher-hating public was fed by her appearances as a determined, shouting, almost angry woman during many speeches and TV appearances, and her puppet's appearances on Spitting Image, (back then an incredibly popular satirical TV programme which used rubber puppet caricatures of famous celebrities and politicians from the world over. It averaged 15 million viewers for a late Sunday night slot on ITV in 1989), which in itself was fed by how she regularly behaved on TV, on stage and on the radio. He describes her, when not on screen, as a kind, caring, sometimes patronising woman, treating others almost like a teacher in a nursery school treats well-behaved children. This idea was also used in Spitting Image a few times, when the cabinet all act like naughty public schoolboys, and she acts as the teacher angry with her boys' behaviour.

The line "we will exterminate all hope you have" is a reference to the fact that under Thatcher, the division between the poor and the more well-off was divided, although in real terms, the working class were better off in 1990 than they had been in 1979. The reference being that the Tories hope to further divide the division between the social classes, taking away many working class people's chance of moving up the career ladder.

Once again, this image is framed with the subject to the left and the main point in writing to the right.

In all, my personal view is that actually, this poster goes just a little too far to be used as an idea in a satirical sketch show, as personally, I think relating Thatcher to a Dalek is fine in public, but on TV, it would just seem a bit too silly to the public and it would be rather obvious that it was just trying to raise laughs rather than use comedy to make a political point, much like Spitting Image did.

Post 7

My 7th blog is another blog about the campaign posters being used by the Conservatives, and again, this is a mock-up of a real Conservative campaign poster. Although the parties only started officially campaigning last week, when Parliament was dissolved for the campaigning period before the upcoming election, political parties are still allowed to campaign before a general election is announced, but there are restrictions on how much campaigning they can do. This is a tactic used by Tony Blair right from the moment he became Labour Party leader in 1994, after the death of John Smith (who was only Labour leader for just over 2 years after the resignation of Neil Kinnock, who had lost the second election during his time as Labour party leader - in April 1992). He used the unpopularity of John Major's Conservative government, and the fact that they were embroiled in political scandals and in-fighting virtually since they won their fourth election victory in a row in 1992. Tony was seen as a bright new start, whereas, to the public, John Major's political party looked old and tired and haggered, which had run out of ideas and run out of steam. However, Norman Fowler, who was the Transport Secretary from 1979-1981, Social Services Secretary from 1981-1987 and Employment Secretary 1987-1990, then Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1992-1994, the extravagant and sometimes OTT advertising campaign by Tony Blair wasn't really needed anyway, as whether John Smith had lived or not, the Tories would still have recieved a defeating hammering at the next general election. Another tactic used by Blair to make the Labour party electable again was to get rid of some of the socialist policies that had made the Labour party unelectable since October 1974, which was the last election they had won, over 20 years earlier.

(Image taken from http://www.mydavidcameron.com/posters/pesky1)

The very design of this version of the "we can't go on like this" Conservative poster is evidently designed by a left-winger, rather than someone merely taking the mickey out of the Conservative party for fun. The image of Margaret Thatcher (David Cameron is being hailed as "Thatcher the Third", after Blair's policies made him seem like Thatcher the Second) is of the puppet version of her used on ITV/Central's satirical puppet programme, Spitting Image, which was broadcast from February 1984 to June 1996. The Thatcher puppet seen here was used, with amendments, from the 1987 election special, broadcast immediately after the polls had closed on election day, 11th June 1987* to series 9, halfway through which she resigned, in late 1990. It was decided, that from the next series, as she was no longer in the public eye that much anymore, that a new puppet was needed, one which could be used so little that it would last until the end of the programme's run (and it did, albeit with minor changes, until the programme's axe in June 1996).

The image denotes the fact that David Cameron is Margaret Thatcher Mk III (Tony Blair being MkII, with John Major coming across as being half Edward Heath, half Thatcherite), the joke, apart from the Spitting Image puppet of her being used, is the fact that she is hiding behind a mask of David Cameron's face, with the tagline "and I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for those pesky kids" - a line often used in the 1970s children's cartoon series Scooby Doo, in which a number of hippy ghost-hunters travelled around the US with their Doberman dog in a Volkswagen camper van solving mysteries. The line was used in this series, when the person reporting the mystery to them would be revealed as the "criminal", usually heard at the end of each episode.

This joke could easily be used by a programme like Spitting Image or 2DTV or Headcases if such a show were running today. Unfortunately, the only satire now seen regularly on TV is either impressionist shows using human beings (rather than puppets, or 2D or CGI animation) or, most commonly, panel game shows such as Have I Got News for You or Mock the Week. I can envisage a Spitting Image sketch involving many Conservative MPs, such as George Osbourne or Michael Gove wondering where Thatcher has disappeared to, as she hasn't been seen in public for the last few years, and wondering if she is dead. Then David Cameron walks into the cabinet meeting office to confess something to his shadow cabinet, then peeling off his mask, revealing himself to be Thatcher, complete with Thatcher's voice, now back to her old ways, angrily dictating her cabinet on what to do. Then Thatcher's cabinet reveal their true identities such as Geoffrey Howe, Nicholas Ridley (even though he genuinely is dead), Cecil Parkinson (particularly suitable if any of Cameron's shadow cabinet has fathered an illicit child) or Douglas Hurd (if any of them have a Dalek voice). Or Michael Heseltine if one of them resigns arguing over who a privatised manufacturing company should be sold to. (This is in reference to Heseltine's resignation over the Westland affair of 1986, in which the only helicopter manufacturer in the UK, Westland, was the subject of being sold to a foreign buyer. Heseltine, being Secretary of State for Defence at the time, favoured it being sold to a European company, whereas Thatcher had ideas to sell it to an American company. The ensuing dispute nearly brought down Thatcher as PM). Maybe even Ken Baker, David Waddington, Chris Patten or Leon Brittan. I have excluded Ken Clarke from this list as it looks as though he really will be in the cabinet if the Tories win next May's election.

The framing is again very similar to the one used in the previous "Audi Quattro" images, with the very basis of the image on the left and the important message on the right.

*The fact that an hour-long up-to-date special was broadcast immediately after the polls closed on that day is a testament to the hard work of the Spitting Image team, as they would have had to be writing, recording and editing all day to have finally come up with a programme like that so soon after the polls had closed. Just to reiterate, even as little as a week before polling day, Thatcher was not expected to win this time, further adding to show how difficult being a member of the Spitting Image production team was, to have to be constantly updated on current affairs.

Post 6

(Images taken from http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/files/2010/04/quattro.jpg

and

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2010/4/2/1270227636291/Labour-campaign-poster-fe-001.jpg)
For the sixth blog post, I have decided to compare two campaign posters, one from Labour, one from the Tories for the upcoming election.

The one thing that makes this campaign stand out from all the previous ones is that the campaign is being led mainly on the internet, and this has led to many people doing their own parodies of the party campaign posters.

The difference between the ideologies of the two parties is evident in the posters, which are both spoofs of the recent Ashes to Ashes TV programme, which is a police drama set in the London Met police in the early 1980s. David Cameron takes the place of DCI Gene Hunt, one of the main characters in Ashes to Ashes.

Labour say "Don't let him take Britain back to the 1980s", when there was widespread social unhappiness. Unemployment, racism and riots on the street were rife back then when Thatcher was prime minister. The education system was cut, the health service was cut, the BBC was under threat. Public spending was cut, and so there was little money for improving council estates which had, by the late 1980s, become known as "ghettos". Also, government benefits were cut during 2 deep recessions. Many people consider David Cameron to be the modern day version of Mrs Thatcher, and this has been shown in numerous campaign posters, including the one above.

Unfortunately (or, fortunately, depending on your view), the Conservatives lapped up the opportunity to spoof this poster with their own official campaign poster, probably inspired by what many people have been doing to their campaign posters at http://mydavidcameron.com/

The Conservative version of the same poster also makes use of Gene Hunt's catchphrase "Fire up the (Audi) Quattro", used when he wants his CID team to get shifting if there is a sudden breakthrough in a case they are investigating or some other such event. This catchphrase was not used in Ashes to Ashes' predecessor, Life on Mars, as that was set in 1973 Manchester, a few years before the introduction of the Audi Quattro. In this series, his car was a orangey-brown Ford Cortina, however his Catchphrase (still occasionally used in Ashes to Ashes), when catching someone red-handed was "Stop what you are doing, you are surrounded by armed bastards!!!" This style of police drama explains the popularity of the show and because Ashes to Ashes is coming up to it's climatic final episode, both parties decided to use the show's popularity to their advantage. The "it's time for change" slogan has been used endlessly in the Conservative campaign. Although whether this will be change to something good or something bad we will have to see. I personally suspect that the change David proposes will not be good for most of the country, only the elite few. if they appeal to a small minority, god knows how they managed to stay in power for 18 years from 1979-1997.

The framing of the images is done in such a way that makes the writing the most prominant and important thing in them, instead of David Cameron, even though he is the most important object in the images, as he is the whole subject of both images. The image of David Cameron is there to give you the subject, the image of the red Audi Quattro is there to suggest the basic idea of the poster - i.e. using a popular BBC programme to feed the election campaign, and the writing, which is large, white against a black background, and is given a lot of space on the image, is the most prominent. This means that the main point is (for the Labour poster) to remind those who were old enough or those who had heard of Margaret Thatcher from their parents what the 80s under the Tories were like. It also suggests that David Cameron is trying to be Margaret Thatcher MkIII, much more like Maggie than Tony Blair ever was.

The Conservative poster makes use of the catchphrase from the main character in Ashes to Ashes, Gene Hunt ("Fire up the Quattro"). It suggests that the Conservatives are as raring to go as a brand new Audi Quattro (which was a commercially-released racing car) would have been in the early 1980s. Ashes to Ashes, over it's three series, has been set in 1981, 1982 and 1983. The "time for change" gives the viewer a vague idea of what the Tory party intend to do if they got into power, probably making the viewer wonder changes these could be, thus making them find out exactly what these changes are by themselves, although some of their policies are rather difficult to work out exactly, as they seem to be keeping their exact promises close to their chest. Either this is because they haven't worked out their exact policies yet, or, as Margaret Thatcher did in 1979, only let the public see some parts of their policies, making the public wonder what the exact policies are, making the public vote for the Tories to find out what the exact policies were.

I suppose that these posters could influence a Party Political Broadcast for either Labour or the Conservatives in the run-up to the election planned for Thursday 6th May. For Labour, there could be a video of David Cameron (actually an impressionist impersonating him) in the red Audi Quattro speeding through a run-down council estate or through a city centre with boarded up shops or a Conservative Party Political Broadcast with David Cameron speeding through Canary Wharf in London or through a middle-class suburb or some other place where the proportion of Conservative voters would be high.