Transcript Exam section A - Mediahubteacher's Blog

Exam section A
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Question 1 a
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Question 1(a) requires candidates to describe and evaluate their skills development
over the course of their production work, from Foundation Portfolio to Advanced
Portfolio. The focus of this evaluation must be on skills development, and the question
will require them to adapt this to ONE or TWO specific production practices. The list
of practices to which questions will relate is as follows:
• Digital Technology
• Creativity
• Research and planning
• Post-production
• Using conventions from real media texts
• In the examination, questions will be posed using one or two of these
categories
Question 1a
• 1 (a) “Digital technology turns media
consumers into media producers”. In your own
experience, how has your creativity developed
through using digital technology to complete
your coursework productions?
• Key words to discuss: Digital technology and
creativity.
Question 1b
Question 1(b) requires candidates to select one production and evaluate it in relation
to a media concept. The list of concepts to which questions will relate is as follows:
• Genre
• Narrative
• Representation
• Audience
• Media language
Key words
• (b) “Media texts rely on cultural experiences
in order for audiences to easily make sense of
narratives”. Explain how you used
conventional and / or experimental narrative
approaches in one of your production pieces.
• Two key words, but the question says explain
narratives you MUST ONLY TALK ABOUT ONE
CONCEPT.
Today’s key concepts.
• At the end of the session you will be able to
described genre and how to recognise the
codes and conventions which create genres.
• You will be able to analyse representations
Key concepts: Genre
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Genre comes from the Latin word for type
All films, television programs, print products, music have genres.
Genres identify to the audience what type of media product it is and also gives the
audience an expectation of the what the genre will contain i.e. westerns you
expect to see cowboys, action-heroes, comedy-laughter.
Sub genres- within genre there are also sub genres i.e. with the genre of action
their are sub genres like action adventure Indiana Jones. Under horror slasher
movies. There are now even cross genre like rom-coms i.e. comedy romance films.
This shows that genre is defined by the audience and genres change over time,
and develop this can be seen in TV with mocumentaries and ...
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Genres are different in different mediums science fiction in literature is different
in film because of the codes and conventions associated with that medium.
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Why genre theory, when genre theory first viewed from the directors perspective
as the author of films and is referred to as auteur theory. Genre theory saw films
as not just an art form but also a commercial and mainstream process.
Genres and sub genres.
• All genres have subgenres for instance:
• What are they?
Genre
• Genres in simple term which contains
recognisable conventions and codes which allows
audiences to make sense of a product.
• Audience: This is what they expect to see, they
have certain expectations this is why people like
genres, can you image going to a pop concert and
then hearing opera music how disappointed you
would be. Codes and conventions are there for a
reason, but genres can and do change over time,
which you can see with both music and films.
Genres are recognisable through these
elements
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Mise-en-scène
(iconography, props, set design, lighting,
location, costume, shot types, camera angles,
special effects).
2. Narrative (plots, historical
setting, set pieces).
3. Generic Types, i.e. typical characters (do
typical male/female roles exist, archetypes?).
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4. Typical Personnel (directors, producers,
actors, stars, auteurs etc.).
5. Typical Sound Design (sound design,
dialogue, music, sound effects).
6. Typical Editing Style.
NB: certain directors are associated with certain
styles i.e. Tim Burton has his own style
Genre questions to ask yourself?
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· What genre is the production?
· What are the codes and conventions of the production?
· How is the genre established in the production?
· How does the mise-en-scène support the genre? What is
the role of the specific elements of the mise-en-scène?
Refer to props, costume, makeup, location, theme
etc.
· What themes have been used?
· Have generic conventions been used to or subverted?
· How will the generic elements of production appeal to
the audience?
Task 1
• Refer to task sheet on mediahubteacher A2:
video analysis and presentation guidance
Genre quotes
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Gunther Kress Genre is “a kind of text that derives its form from the structure of a (frequently
repeated) social occasion, with its characteristic participants and their purposes.”
Denis McQuail “The genre may be considered as a practical device for helping any mass
medium to produce consistently and efficiently and to relate its production to the expectations
of its customers.”
Nicholas Abercrombie “Television producers set out to exploit genre conventions... It... makes
sound economic sense. Sets, properties and costumes can be used over and over again. Teams
of stars, writers, directors and technicians can be built up, giving economies of scale”
Christine Gledhill “Differences between genres meant different audiences could be identified
and catered to... This made it easier to standardise and stabilise production”
Katie Wales “Genre is... an intertextual concept”
John Fiske “A representation of a car chase only makes sense in relation to all the others we
have seen - after all, we are unlikely to have experienced one in reality, and if we did, we would,
according to this model, make sense of it by turning it into another text, which we would also
understand intertextually, in terms of what we have seen so often on our screens. There is then
a cultural knowledge of the concept 'car chase' that any one text is a prospectus for, and that it
used by the viewer to decode it, and by the producer to encode it.”
Andrew Goodwin
Genres change and evolve:
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Christian Metz - Stages of genres: Experimental/ Classic/ Parody/ Deconstruction
David Buckingham - “Genre is not simply given by the culture, rather, it is in a constant process of
negotiation and change.”
Key concept: Representation
In order to create realism versimilituted the media use representation to create realism, so
people can identify with characters and have a shared understanding of what is being mediated.
In relation to genre: certain representations are used for instance women are often seen as
victims in horror or action films, how many times do women get killed or kidnapped in a film and
are shown to be weak, how many female superheroes can you think of and the those you can
have many of them represent ‘real women’.
All representations therefore have ideologies
behind them. Certain paradigms are encoded into
texts and others are left out in order to give a
preferred representation (Levi – Strauss, 1958).
• Richard Dyer (1983) posed a few questions when
analysing media representations in general.
• 1. What sense of the world is it making?
• 2. What does it imply? Is it typical of the world or
deviant?
• 3. Who is it speaking to? For whom? To whom?
• 4. What does it represent to us and why? How do
we respond to the representation?
Ideology
• Ideology: is a set of ideas, or a way of looking
at things that can determine actions and
goals. Ideology is often linked to political
ideology or a way of doing things.
Theories about representation
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MARXISM
FEMINISM
POSTMODERNISM
STEREOTYPES
Marxism
• Marxists suggest that the ruling elite take
turns sharing power, so regardless who you
vote for it is still the rich who are in power.
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Marxism
1. Ideologies and Representation
Marxism is an ideology which views society as
being unequal with the ruling class rich people as
being dominant.
A hegemonic view of society political, economical
or ideological or cultural power those in power
have over others. (Think about the few media
companies who own most of the media could they
be described as hegemonic ownership?)
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Representations are encoded into mass media
texts in order to reinforce dominant ideologies in
society. By reinforcing certain representation and
undermining others. (When people opposed the
war in America they were called unpatriotic).
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Consider how certain types of people are
represented by the media, is it just because the
dominant ideology what you to think in a certain
way, divide and conquer consider this next time
you pick up a news story look at how people are
represented.
Feminism
• Masculinity and femininity are
socially constructed
• Ideas about gender are produced and
reflected in language O’ Sullivan et al
(1998).
• Feminism is a perspective which
views their to be gender inequalities
in society, in films this might be the
stereotyping of women as
subservient victims or where lesbians
are seen as a male fantasy.
• Laura Mulvey (1975) argues that the
dominant point of view is masculine. The
female body is displayed for the male gaze
in order to provide erotic pleasure for the
male (vouyerism). Women are therefore
objectified by the camera lens and
whatever gender the spectator/audience is
positioned to accept the masculine POV.
John Berger ‘Ways Of Seeing’ (1972)
“Men act and women appear”. “Men
look at women. Women watch
themselves being looked at”.
“Women are aware of being seen by a
male spectator”
• Jib Fowles (1996) “in advertising, males gaze and
females are gazed at”.
• Paul Messaris (1997) “female models addressed to
women....appear to imply a male point of view”.
• In terms of magazine covers of women, Janice
Winship (1987) has been an extremely influential
theorist. “The gaze between cover model and
women readers marks the complicity between
women seeing themselves in the image masculine
culture has defined”.
Representation
• Identify characters, events or issues within the production
to discuss.
• What representational concepts are highlighted? (i.e. race,
gender, cultural attitudes
• etc.)
• What representations have been generated?
• Discuss the specific elements of character representation,
i.e. modes of address, facial expression, costume,
behaviour etc.
• Have any stereotypical representations been generated?
• Does the production conform to, or subvert, any dominant
ideologies?
Representation
In order to create verisimilitude and to fit into typical genres a
media text must contain representations of stereotypes,
which make them recognisable.
Questions we would ask when analysing representations:
• WHO or WHAT is being represented?
• How is this created and contrasted
• HOW is the representation created?
• WHO has created the representation?
• WHY is the representation created in that way? What is the
• intention?
• WHAT is the effect of the representation?