Big Issue part 2

The street cat named Bob 

- James had to gain discipline- get up early to sell the big issue, he had to travel get the most income from selling in Covent Garden 
- Heroin addict- was selfish and only cared for himself until Bob made an appearance and James 
had to care for someone other than himself, he had to stop being addicted to drugs and get into a house 
- Bob flowed James onto a bus
- He was a busker and he wrote a book about Bob but remained doing his busking 
- He made £500k in 3 years but still had his tax paid by his housing benefits - £107 a month rent 
- Bob got hurt which initiated him trying to get a job in the big issue to pay for Bobs vet bills , he didn't eat well during this time 

PLOT

James Bowen is a homeless man and former heroin addict, living on the streets of London, and down to his last bits of change. After a life threatening, drug-related, incident, his support worker, Val, in an attempt to get him off the street, gets him into a council flat, and prescribes him on methadone. On his first night in his flat, James discovers a cat rifling through his food. Assuming he had escaped from somewhere, James tries to return the cat to his real owners. After letting him go, the same evening, the cat returns to James's flat, this time, with a purulent wound on his back leg. Worried, James consults his animal-loving, but allergic, neighbour, Betty. She informs James of a local charity vet that she volunteers at, and names the cat Bob. Waiting for a queue at the vet, James misses a meeting with Val. After the appointment, James later gets Bob castrated and sets him free. However, Bob keeps following James into town, eventually drawing more crowds of people, making James more wealthy, and he eventually decides to keep Bob. Bob becomes a tourist hotspot, and James and Betty start to become romantically attached.

One night, while returning home, James finds his old friend, Baz, unconscious on his flat estate, overdosed on heroin. Baz later dies in hospital, and James finds out that Betty cannot be around drug addicts, as her deceased brother had been one. On New Year's Eve, James makes an impromptu visit to his biological father, Jack, his stepmother, Hilary, and his lost sisters, Pris and Faith. After Bob destroys their living room, Hilary sends James and Bob out.

One day, while busking, James gets into an argument with a yob, causing the crowd to get in a brawl with the man and James getting arrested for it. After being found innocent, he is prohibited from busking for 6 months. While in the chemist, receiving his methadone, Betty notices him. Betty and James argue and go their separate ways. Later on, James visits the offices of The Big Issue to make some more money for him and Bob. He regains his popularity with tourists by selling The Big Issue. After being accused of illegally selling magazines on another vendor's patch, James and Bob are banned for a whole month. After going back in business, James gets into an argument with a woman trying to buy Bob off him, losing Bob in the scuffle. Bob does not return for a few days, leaving James devastated. After Bob returns, James feels he is ready to come off the methadone. After a week of withdrawal symptoms, James awakes, clean and healthy. A journalist, Mary, requests to write a book about James and Bob after his Internet and media popularity, and James agrees. James then fixes up his relationship with his father Jack, and his life turns around for the better.

https://www.bigissue.org.uk/news/2014/november/10/cat-power?gclid=CjwKCAjw-NXPBRB4EiwAVNRLKupOMFwhvbQCY-qGmjM8Jjjyr3B4RFdGv-IstxP9TawNsRENckW27xoCktMQAvD_BwE

Was Bob really a rival to Hello Kitty? How could Japanese people relate to our very British story?

Bob has more than 50,000 followers on Twitter and 250,000 fans on Facebook

James and Bob has very generously agreed for The Big Issue Foundation to release the first ever set of prints in support of The Big Issue Foundation

Japan has a love for animals and specifically cats. 

Homeless people are stereotypically dirty, poor and unemployed. I think that there is a strong stereotype to homeless people but for example the movie 'A streetcar named Bob' counter stereotypes this because we see how hard the homeless man tries to fix his life so that his cat is happy. 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4947658/Homeless-man-killed-mother-son-jailed-life.html

Police were warned homeless man who slaughtered family who took him in had made chilling Facebook death threats but failed to protect his victims. This is bad press of homeless people 

The big issue is a good source of counter stereotyping because it is showing that homeless people are trying to make a difference. 

- Saturated colours- coincides with Japanese pop culture which is saturated and colourful

- Direct mode of address because Bob is looking forward

-Informal language 'Bobzilla'.

- The colour of the logo for the magazine is in black and white and you can see it clearly as it is not as colourful as the rest of the front cover and is placed at the top left hand side. 'A hand up not a handout'- always relating back to the true underlying meaning of the magazine company, promoting homelessness as something that needs to be helped not just given. They buy their big issues for 50p and sell them for £2.50 and sell around 10 a day making £20 a day. 

- it is a counter stereotype of homelessness because The Big Issue have used saturated colours which represents happiness and fun and is associated with homelessness as a magazine. Homelessness has been stereotyped as something bad which would be represented with dark colours

- Bob has been sen as counter stereotyping homelessness so the fact he is so big on then magazine and positioned in a bold way could show that he has been the change to the stereotype of homeless people. 

- Intertextuality reference- the book, the anime character, Godzilla 

- Mise-en-scene- positioned central, he is a smart looking cat not scruffy and formal because Bob is wearing clothes but makes in informal as well because he is wearing scruffy clothes. 

- You can tell your in Japan because of the billboards in Japanese and some of the food stalls. 

- Font- mostly san serif font which is modern font and is quite uplifting. Teasing what is going to be in the article- why a cat is popular in Japan. 'Bob Big in Japan'. Pink font is very popular in the Japanese culture 

Homelessness charity- Shelter 

We strive every day to give people the help they need, and we campaign relentlessly to achieve our vision of a safe, secure, affordable home for everyone.

BBC radio 1 interview- 
76 weeks at top charts- book
He'd love his story to turn into a movie
Didn't intend to be on set as much as he was
5.30 am for 7 weeks 

Amazing to have James on set, it was a constant reminder for him of the story Luke was telling (movie)
10 years on street 
Number of people on the street has doubled since 2010
James thinks the problem is that they are all placed into the same boat when they are all really different such as immigration, employment. 


Drug addiction figures- 2015/16 there were 8,621 hospital admissions, 6% more than 2014/15 and 11% more than 2005/06
- 41% of homeless people admitted to recovering from drugs or taking them
 - Homeless people die at just 47 years old, compared to 81 years for the average UK citizen
- A homeless rough sleeper is 35 times more likely to commit suicide than the average person.
- People sleeping on the street are almost 17 times more likely to have been victims of violence. 
- Causes-
Lack of affordable housing
Poverty 
Unemployment 
Leave prison, care or the army with no home to go to. 
Escaped a violent relationship.
No longer afford the rent.
Relationship breaking down 
Losing a job
Mental or physical health problems
Substance misuse can be the trigger
- In 2016 59,090 households were accepted as homeless

-Types

- Hidden homelessness- Many people who are not entitled to help with housing, or who don’t even approach their councils for help, aren’t counted in the official statistics.

- Statutory homelessness- Local authorities have a duty to secure a home for some groups of people

- Rough sleeping-Rough sleeping is the most visible form of homelessness, and when most people think of a homeless person they tend to think of someone sleeping rough on the streets