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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