Media Language

Exam Section A

Question 1b

Media Language

• This is the area of theory concerned with how texts communicate with the viewer.

• Your video communicates with the audience through use of the camera, editing and mise en scene, as well as overall narrative structure.

Straight from OCR

• “Media language refers to the ways in which media producers make meaning in ways that are specific to the medium in which they are working and how audiences come to be literate in ‘reading’ such meaning within the medium. For example’ ‘the language of film’. These medium specific languages will often be closely connected to other media concepts such as narrative and genre and candidates are at liberty to make such connections to a greater or lesser extent in their answers.”

Key language

• This connotes...• This symbolises...• This implies...• This suggests...• This encourages the audience to think...• This signifies...• ...associated with....

Denotation/ConnotationDenotation Connotation

The colour white Connotes innocence, purity, honesty, surrender

A clenched fist

Red Ferrari

The colour red

A Rolex watch

A low angle shot

Camerawork

• Camera Shots: Long shots, medium shots, establishing shots, extreme close ups etc. Primarily the close up on the singer’s face is the main generic convention for music videos. Jumping directly between long shots, close ups and extreme close ups. Also the extreme close up on the lips for lip synching.

• Camera Movement: Whip pans, fast track shots and fast overhead crane shots to follow the running, walking or dancing of performers. Also fast vertical tilts and horizontal pans.

• Camera Angles: High angle/low angle/depth of field.

Editing

• Editing: Various terms: fast cutting, MTV style editing or montage editing. Creating the visually de-centred experience of ‘jumping’ from location to person to instrument without any normal narrative continuity.

• Rhythm: It is often the beat or the rhythm of the track which provides the organising principle for editing movement. The editing moves so fast it creates the need for viewing ‘repeatedly’.

• Post-production digital effects: split screens, colourisation, slow motion etc.

• Creative effects: stop motion, time lapse etc.• Continuity: linear editing, eye-line matches, match on action.

Mise En Scene

• Lighting: Expressive lighting is a key feature of music videos. Extreme artificial light to create the ‘bleaching’ effect on pop stars faces (making them seem ageless). Also the use of switching from colour to black & white or sepia to indicate a shift from chorus to verse. Also lighting effects such as strobes or flashing lights.

• Costume: Genre identification/star theory.• Location: Urban/dreamlike/surreal• Colour: what kind of atmosphere are you trying to create? What

do certain colours symbolise?• Props: what are your key props? How did you present these?• Facial expressions/body language

9

Narrative structure

Open Structure:

The audience are left to wonder what happens next and make sense of it themselves

Closed Structure:Definite ending – clear conclusion for the audience

Circular Structure:The narrative begins at the end events (often with the climax). The audience are taken on a journey arriving back where they started. (e.g. Pulp fiction)

?

!

Narrative structure also helps a text communicate with the viewer:

10

Narrative Structure (continued)

• Linear or non-linear structure?- often music videos are non- linear as they involve montage editing; sometimes they will contain a linear narrative element to them.

• Single strand or multi-strand structure? Single strand = one narrative thread; multi- strand = several narrative threads

11

Barthes Codes

Action Code: something the audience knows and doesn't need explaining e.g. someone being wheeled out on a stretcher tells us they are going to hospital

Enigma Code: something hidden from the audience (creates intrigue)

Symbolic Code:Something that the audience recognise through connotations or something that symbolizes a more abstract concept e.g. a darker than usual room of a murder scene could symbolize the depth of darkness and depravity

Cultural Code:Something that is read with understanding due to cultural awareness (e.g. youth culture use certain words that are understood by that culture)

Barthes describes narrative as a series of codes that are read and interpreted by the audience

12

Narrative Structure

Open Structure: The audience are left to wonder what happens next and make sense of it themselves

Closed Structure: Definite ending – clear conclusion for the audience

Circular Structure: The narrative begins at the end events (often with the climax). The audience are taken on a journey arriving back where they started. (e.g. Pulp fiction)

Narrative structure also helps a text communicate with the viewer.

13

Narrative Structure (continued)

• Linear or non-linear structure?- often music videos are non- linear as they involve montage editing; sometimes they will contain a linear narrative element to them.

• Single strand or multi-strand structure? Single strand = one narrative thread; multi- strand = several narrative threads

Andrew Goodwin (1992)

• The 6 typical characteristics of the music video- the same theory we used for genre. Here the focus is on how the 6 typical characteristics help the text to communicate with the viewer;

Goodwin’s 6 characteristics

1. Different sub- genres of music have their own video conventions(e.g. stage performance in rock video, choreographed dance routine in pop videos)

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals

3. There is a relationship between the music and visuals

4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist to emphasise the image of the star.

5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

6. There is often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos and other popular culture)

Task: Your Video

• Slide 1: introduction to your analysis and a brief description of your video.

• Slide 2: camerawork• Slide 3: editing• Slide 4: mise en scene• Slide 5: narrative structure (could include

Barthes)• Slide 6: genre and Goodwin• Slide 7: conclusion