Exam section A

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Question 1 a• 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 1bQuestion 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• 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 ...

• Genres are different in different mediums science fiction in literature is different in film because of the codes and conventions associated with that medium.

• 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

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?).

• 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?• · 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• 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:

– 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: RepresentationIn order to create realism versimilituted the media use representation to create realism, sopeople 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 asvictims in horror or action films, how many times do women get killed or kidnapped in a film andare shown to be weak, how many female superheroes can you think of and the those you canhave 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

1. MARXISM2. FEMINISM3. POSTMODERNISM4. 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.

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?)

• 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).

• 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?

RepresentationIn 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?