Powerpoint for question 1a

Question 1a

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Exempler essay for question 1a

1. Explanation, analysis, argument - pink
2. Example - blue
3. Terminology - yellow


Over the two year media course we had to produce both a foundation portfolio of a school magazine and music magazine as well as an advance portfolio of a horror teaser trailer, film magazine – developing foundation skills further and a poster to advertise our trailer.

In the first year we researched existing music magazines and analysed each one so that we could gain knowledge of particular layouts, fonts and key elements that need to be contained in our production to make it successful. Research and planning allowed us to recognise ‘mastheads’ on magazines as being the most important and therefore the need to focus on a font more detailed to keep continuity with the contents page and double page spread which we also had to create.

Personally I researched ‘Rock’ magazines such as Kerrang, NME and others because I had chosen after carrying out a questionnaire to use Rock music as my theme. The real life media texts allowed me to visualise my favourite parts from each magazine – ripped sticker graphics and broken font on my own work which I then attempted to recreate within Photoshop CS4. In year 1 we were limited to what we could research because magazines were the only theme however, in the second year I was able to develop my ability to research real life media texts much further because we had a range of products we needed to create all under the ‘horror’ genre this time. I was able to research teaser trailers analysing my favourite and least favourite parts allowing me to plan with a mood board which I produced from a range of stills from previous horror films my ideas for my own trailer which helped me to develop my production of my products in relation to real life media texts and techniques such as restricted narration and handheld camera found in the ‘Blair Witch Project’ trailer which inspired my trailer ‘Laquem’ which is also set in the woods. Research into film documentaries like the ‘American Nightmare’ inspired me to create a product which reinforced fear and went against usual horror conventions to make it more interesting. Over the second year research became so important to achieving a product which was realistic and is now like my own distributed on YouTube as a real life media text of its own.

Real life media texts like advertising film posters were able to help me develop my Photoshop skills further because I was able to push myself with the ‘colour burn’ filters and want to create the scary atmosphere of my trailer from just an image and text which I found really fun.

Research into film magazines allowed me to develop my work from AS level so much further because I was able to produce a high standard piece of work in two weeks this year when the magazines took over 3 months last year which shows how much my skills have improves just by being able to constantly refer back to real life media texts for inspiration and even colour schemes that work well together such as black and red which in the first year I just found experimenting with. Research into horror trailers allowed me to recognise different styles of film and how we like Alfred Hitchcock could be an auteur creating new angles and ideas using generic conventions as well as unconventional representations that I have picked upon when watching films and analysing certain techniques which I have then attempted to do in Final Cut Pro when editing certain shots together to create collision cutting and changes in pace which my trailer does extremely well. I was inspired initially by the hand held camera in the trailer REC and the fact I want as an auteur to change the stereotyped representations to be able use a female psycho killer.

Research also allowed me to produce text and inter-titles that shook in order to capture my audience but narrating the story slightly so the shots when together made sense. Research into types of camera movements needed were really helpful and allowed me to completely change the pace with tracking shots and handheld camera which I noticed was used in Silent Hill and American Werewolf in London which I analysed and placed on my blog for reference as some pieces of footage I wanted to recreate including the final girl representations.

Media Language essay plan

Media language essay plan

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Audience essay plan

Audience essay plan

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Narrative essay plan

Narrative essay plan

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Representaion essay plan

Representaion essay plan

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Genre essay

The media production I am going to write about in relation to genre is my short film that was done for A2, ‘Jeté’ which was my preferred piece from the course.

The genre of my short film is a drama. Dramas are quite a broad genre; therefore it is difficult to name the specific components as they often contain a wide variety from many different ones to make them successful however there are many sub-genres of drama; my film falls into the subgenre teen drama, similar to the full length film ‘Step-up’. ‘Jeté’ may also be classed as a dance film, which in recent years, due to increased popularity has become a new genre in itself. Steve Neal (1980) said that all genres are instances of repetition and difference. This means that certain generic feature had to be included, which in my case was that, due to the fact that dramas also usually reflect reality, I made the decision to use natural lighting, costumes and props. For example, I used daylight as much as possible throughout the film, shooting outside scenes during the morning and inside scenes, leaving natural light to come through the windows. In terms of costume and props, the main character wore a leotard and tights when dancing and had her hair up in a pony tail for most of the film, which also reflects the stereotypes of a dancer. In a dance genre, there are usually specific components such as the fact that the film is based around music and dance. This was the case in my film, as it built up to my protagonist auditioning at a dance college consisting of several scenes in which she danced, including montage shots when she rehearsed and an audition scene. This was done to create a sense of verisimilitude.

The narrative of a drama usually tends to emphasise on the plot and what happens next, which arouses curiosity about the story line. I have followed this convention through the use of the framing. For example, when our main character is at the audition, I did not include the judges in the shots which left the audience to merely hear their voices as they spoke creating a sense of mystery. At the end, I have also created suspense by leaving the film on a cliff-hanger where the final shot is a close up of the protagonist’s face showing her smiling slightly as she opens a letter. We do not, however, learn the outcome and what the letter says. This draws the audience in as it allows the audience open to their own interpretation of what happens next. This is a convention of the drama genre, yet is possibly more related to TV dramas such as Eastenders or Hollyoaks which always leave their viewers in suspense at the end of each episode and wanting to watch more. In this way, I have challenged conventions.

It is important for the target audience to identify with the main character as this is one of the conventions of a drama. In a film or a TV drama, there is a lot longer to establish that connection between audience and the protagonist. However as I was doing a short film, it was important to help the audience relate right from the start. In doing this, I decided to challenge conventions of the dance genre through the representation of our main character, Faye. In most dance films, the protagonist represented is usually under-privileged and the cast is made up from multi-cultural backgrounds. I, however have a white, middle classed girl. I found that this helped our target audience to identify and relate to her as they are the same age and of the same background. This also helped us create a simple representation that would target our audience directly. However having done his I realise we have ignored a more multi-cultural audience and thus our short film targets a particularly niche audience – the feedback we received from distributing this on YouTube confirmed this as well. We have also helped the audience to relate to her through the use of camera angles and shots. For example, I included extreme close ups of her facial expressions, which brought the audience closer to her.

Editing and mise-en-scene is really important to genre as it very quickly helps to establish moods and atmospheres. The ways in which I have used the locations help to reflect and demonstrate the mood of the central character. The scene in which she rehearses is set in a dance studio with white walls. This reflects the fact that she is relaxed and in a comfortable environment. This contrasts to the scene in which she has her audition which was in a room with black walls which showed a situation where she was not at ease and nervous.

The point of a drama is that the audience believes that it could really happen or has happened and I believe my product fitted successfully into the drama genre using techniques such as believable characters helping to successfully create a sense of verisimilitude.

Exemplar sentenses

Paragraph 1 - The media production I am going to write about in relation to genre is my favourite piece from the whole course which is my horror teaser trailer.

Paragraph 2 - Steve Neal said that ‘genre is a repetition with an underlying pattern of variations’ which meant certain generic features had to be included and repeated which in my case was the use of a creepy location of the woods as well as hand held camera and restricted narration to cause disorientation and suspense within our trailer.

Paragraph 3 - Editing and mise-en-scene is really important to genre and reflects very quickly certain moods and atmospheres.

Paragraph 4 - Genre is the ideas that collectively make a particular recognisable style that draws in its existing target audience.

Paragraph 5 - In my trailer we also used an iconic symbol of...

Paragraph 6 -The generic conventions we chose to use were all important to the success of our product and since distributing it on YouTube we have over 4000

Paragraph 7 - Genre places a media text into a grouping giving it an identity which can be recognised by the mainstream society and I believe my product is successfully fitted to the horror genre using the narrative that todorov argued was important to the horror genre by following an equilibrium at the beginning then a problem

Exemplar essay

1. Explanation, analysis, argument - pink
2. Example - blue
3. Terminology - yellow

1b)

The media production I am going to write about in relation to genre is my favourite piece from the whole course which is my horror teaser trailer.

The genre of the trailer is obviously ‘horror’ and this in itself allowed us to be creative with narrative etc but limited us because we had to stick to a certain amount of generic conventions in order for it to be recognised by it’s existing target audience. Steve Neal said that ‘genre is a repetition with an underlying pattern of variations’ which meant certain generic features had to be included and repeated which in my case was the use of a creepy location of the woods as well as hand held camera and restricted narration to cause disorientation and suspense within our trailer. However, the pattern of variation Neal describes also links to my horror teaser trailer because we were able to creatively push the boundaries by twisting some generic features in order to make the trailer interesting and therefore cause the audience to want to watch the full movie. For this my group chose use a female psycho killer I order to subvert the stereotypical male dominated role. This female identification through point of view shots etc captured our female audience because were providing them with power and this is unusual for the horror genre although it is known for its forward thinking approach as it often attempts to focus on subcultural views instead of targeting the mainstream. Genre encompasses many parts and the trailer links to it in more ways than one. Its use of enclosed location and the fact the woods attempts to reinforce our society’s fear of loneliness and isolation which the woods creates when the three friends get lost. In these sections of the trailer we used a lot of heavy cross cutting between the female victim who is running anxiously through the woods in order to find her friends and get home safely. We also used the Kuleshove and collision cutting methods as the pace began slow as the friends head our in the car unaware of the danger before them and once they are in the woods we deliberately quickened the pace of editing to cause tension and to show that something is not right, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats.

Editing and mise-en-scene is really important to genre and reflects very quickly certain moods and atmospheres. Levi Strauss and Roland Barthes argued that the horror genre like many others used ‘binary oppositions’ in order to show the contrast between good and evil in order to force the audience to be constantly questioning the trailer for example; in my trailer I used light and dark to connote their happiness and carefree attitude in the daytime and the darkness to emphasise their fear and reliance on their senses. This is particularly important to the horror genre as characters are often shown in high angle shots to appear vulnerable and therefore under threat.

Gore or ‘body horror’ is also a common generic convention used by most horror films that we studied including Dawn of the Dead by George A. Romero who used it to make the audience feel sick by forcing them to see extreme violence. In my own trailer we were inspired to use gore differently by showing a hanging scene in slow motion to create tension and the centoring in on the face and neck which had been broken and this was shown by the rope burn we had made from latex and the blood pouring down her chest. This shot moves clockwise and slowly zooms in to force the audience to see what the hang (woman) has done. In our final two shots we finish the trailer with the male anti hero being lifted off the ground with blood pouring out of his mouth which causes the audience to assume no one survives because the final girl is stabbed by her friend accidentally which quickens the pace and adds tension but she is the survivor who as Carol Clover suggests will be terrorised throughout the film and finally overcome the monster. This plays with the audiences emotions and links back to the horror genre well by creating our own style of horror. Andrew Sarris argues because it encompasses so much and is key to explaining a film. Genre is the ideas that collectively make a particular recognisable style that draws in its existing target audience. My horror trailer had expressionist camera angles as the female victim desperately trips over the camera and we see her running above it as well as close ups of her facial expression that causes us to identify with her fear and therefore makes us scared. This meant the audience also were forced to objectify the female victim from the high angle camera shot down her top in which we can see her breasts slightly after watching other Hitchcock movies which use the male gaze theory by Laura Mulvey to force us to take a male’s viewpoint.

In my trailer we also used an iconic symbol of the noose because obviously as a hangwoman she needed the prop but also as a female the circular shape suggested female power and this is something the horror genre often does but for male characters using guns etc as phallic symbols which we also used as the male anti hero takes out a knife and stabs his friend frantically when she walks up behind him. The horror trailer was made much darker in Final Cut Pro using the brightness and contrast menu and also dragged the saturated colours towards the blue in order to create a dark, dusky night time atmosphere a generic convention of horror trailers.

The generic conventions we chose to use were all important to the success of our product and since distributing it on YouTube we have over 4000 which I am really pleased with and gives me the confidence that we obviously stuck to the genre enough to capture our intended target audience but were creative enough to make people want to keep watching the trailer and virally sharing it with others.

Genre places a media text into a grouping giving it an identity which can be recognised by the mainstream society and I believe my product is successfully fitted to the horror genre using the narrative that todorov argued was important to the horror genre by following an equilibrium at the beginning then a problem which in our case was the male anti hero playing a joke on the soon to be female victim making jump running after him causing their separation then a pathway to resolution – as they attempt to find each other and then a new equilibrium at the end which we deliberately left as an open ending to capture our audience effectively.

EAA 10

EG 10

Term 5

(24/25)

Total Section A 45/50

Stuart Hall presentaion

Stuart hall

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Media theories

Copycat theory

This theory puts forward the idea of recreating a violent act such as murder or suicide from a media text in real life. The film 'Child's Play' has been associated with a few 'copycat' crimes: In December 1992, four people who tortured and killed a 16 year old girl were said to be influenced by one of the 'Child's Play' movies. Furthermore, during the torturing, the perpetrators were said to have taunted her with quotes from the film.

Desensitization theory

This theory puts forward the idea that because people are so exposed to violence in the media, violence no longer has a strong emotional impact upon them. By watching violent films, a viewer will not become upset when watching others as they have become desensitized or used to it.  However, the debate surrounding this concept is whether people will also be desensitized to real life violence. If a person watches a violent film, and then sees a real dead body on the street, will this person still experience desensitization?

Cultivation theory

Cultivation theory focuses more on how people's attitudes are impacted by the media, rather than just behaviors. It therefore theorists focus more on how people think rather than what they do. Much of this research involves comparing the attitudes of heavy media users, moderate media users, and light media users.

This is England and Quadrophenia poster comparison

I will be looking at the comparisons between the posters of ‘This is England’ and ‘Quadrophenia’. Both posters are representative of the British youth culture, ‘Quadrophenia’ being that of the 70s looking particularly at the Mods subculture vs. that of the Rockers of the 60s and ‘This is England’ representing the Skinhead subculture in the 80s.

The main differences of the characters shown of the poster are that of their hair and clothing as they both represent the different subcultures: The Mods choosing fashion including, for the boys, tailor made suits and pointed shoes whilst the girls chose a boyish look with shorter hair and darkened eyes. This is different from the Skinhead subculture in ‘This is England’ as they wore designers such as Ben Sherman and Fred Perry, the boys having 2 or 3 grade haircuts reflecting the skinhead name.

Both sets of groups have adopted a similar pose in the posters. This shows that both subcultures have a strong group mentality both uniting to be different and rebel against the establishment. The locations of where the characters are in the posters is similar, the background of both being a fence. This could have been used to represent the poverty of both groups of youths as both films are set around housing and industrial estates.

The colour choices of the posters have many obvious similarities, the first of which being the use of blue, white and red in the titles. In ‘Quadrophenia’, the choice would have been to demonstrate the Mod culture having used of its sign on the letter ‘Q’, a sign which The Who, one of whose albums this film is based around, chose to adopt for themselves.  However in ‘This is England’, the colours correspond to the Union Jack, reinforcing the sense the British pride of the Skinhead subculture and helping to highlight the underlying themes of racism.

The background colours present differences between the two posters as ‘Quadrophenia’ is in black and white. This is reflective of the mood in the film as it possibly depicts the depression of the youths as employment was at an all time low. Whereas the ‘This is England poster’ is predominantly blue, the connotations of which are freedom, strength and a new beginning. This is slightly ironic due to the tragic ending of the film.

The ‘This is England’ poster shows many of its reviews such as ‘winner best film’ and ‘deeply impressive’ placing great emphasis on just how much success this film received. This makes the poster immediately busy and chaotic helping to demonstrate and foreshadow the events that occur in the film. This contrasts to that of the ‘Quadrophenia’ poster as it has little reviews written on it making it seem a lot cleaner perhaps helping to symbolise the simplicity of lifestyle of the characters.

Youth groups through the decades

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An anthropological introduction to YouTube

• The web is about linking people
• YouTube is about expressing your identity
• It can mediate human relations which are constantly changing
• Strongest presence of YouTube uses 18-24 year olds
• Loads of videos are addressed to the 'YouTube community' - is this due to a loss of community in everyday life?
• You are able to play with identity - remove, change or exagerate what is real
• You can be anyone on YouTube - you are able to play with your identity
• Videos on Youtube that are not real sparked a debate of whether or not this should be it's use
• Anonimity andphysical distance allow for the freedom and comfort to say what you want to about other videos which may lead to a deeper connection
• Issue of leagality of lifting material

Katz and Blumler

Uses and Gratifications Theory

This theory suggests that there are four ways in which we consume media texts:

• Entertainment
• Education/information
• Personal identity
• Integration and social interaction

In recent years 'Escapism' has also been suggested as another way we consume media texts.

Character representations in This is England

• Unity: there is a sense of unity in the film because they all come together when having a good time and unite over their views on 'Britishness'. There is a family like nature and a sense of protecting one another
• Clothing: the clothing worn in the film is yet another way that the characters are united. The principal characters are all seen to be wearing designers such as Ben Sherman and Fred Perry reflecting their subculture
• Violence/bullies: this is represented right from the beginning of the film where footage of rioting can be seen demonstrating that right from the start, this is a key character representation
• Role models: as they have a group mentality in the film, there is always someone for the characters to look up to. For example Shaun, the youngest of the group is welcomed and looked after by Woody as an older brother might
• Simplicity of lifestyle: they lead a simple life as they are not represented to have stressful jobs or reaponsabilities

Ideology

Ideology tends to refer to the way in which people think about the world and their ideal concept of how to live in the world. It refers to a set of ideas which produce a partial and selective view of reality.

Stuart Hall's audience reception theory

Stuart Hall's theory of encoding and decoding is a theory of reception theory. Acording to this, audiences can have three different reactions to a media text:

• Preffered reading: how the director/creator wants the audience to view the media text
• Negociable reading: when the audience rejects the preferred reading, and creates their own meaning of the text
• Oppositional: where the audience accepts parts of the director's views, but has their own views on parts as well

Stuart Hall (cultural theorist)

Born: 3 February 1932, Kingston, Jamaica
Residence: Ireland
Fields: Cultural studies
Influences: Karl Marx, Antonio Gramsci, Raymond Williams, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault

Stuart Hall is a cultural theorist and sociologist who has lived and worked in the United Kingdom since 1951. Hall, along with Richard Hoggart and Raymond Williams, was one of the founding figures of the school of thought that is now known as British Cultural Studies or The Birmingham School of Cultural Studies. He was President of the British Sociological Association 1995-1997.

British Youth

Aged 13-20 yrs old


Positive representations

• Girl teen magasines
• Front magazine
• Olympic swimmer
• Local newspapers
• Inbetweeners
• Glee (for American comparison)
• 90210 (for American comparison)

Negative representations

• Skins
• Eastenders
• Hollyoaks
• Kidulthood/Adulthood
• Student protests
• 16 and pregnant
• Jeremy Kyle
• Underage drinking