Notes on qeation 1A

1a. 

i. To what extent have digital technologies helped develop your research and planning skills during your Media 'A' Level?

ii. Has using conventions from real media texts in your work enhanced or impeded your ability to be creative?

- The internet has helped research real media products
- Camera for still shots of locations to put in to planning
- Hd camera test shoots planning how the finle shots can look like
- you tube to study music videos and film trailers and openings
- Google to find directing skills and shot types
 

Section A. Question 1b.

1b:
(i) With reference to your study of genre, how useful is it to apply a critical framework to your production work?



(ii) What decisions did you make during the creation of representation in your production work?
The typical conventions for the type of thriller we aimed to produce - psychological thriller - are instead of, as you see in many horrors the way the antagonist tries to kill the protagonist is not through brute force but through cleverness and wit. Also, they protagonist is never just blindly killing the antagonist for no apparent reason, or just because he/she is a murderous psychopath, it is more that the antagonist has some emotional or physical attachment, or they gain something from the protagonists death. 

In our thriller, we did incorporate many of these elements, for instance, Thomas does have a emotional attachment to Emile, they are both friends. Additionaly, as Thomas is...


During our thriller project we tried to represent a number of things. Firstly, we attempted to represent the character Emile through the mood of the mise-en-scene. As his character seems to be 'troubled' we decided to set the thriller in a very rainy/damp climate. This also allowed us to keep in the typical conventions of a modern Thriller which are usually suspenseful. 

To what extent did your work challenge audience expectations?

Plan

Introduction
Introduce the music video and the genre, talk about the stereotypical elements of that genre. Explain who the target audience and why.

First Paragraph
Talk about the cinematography and how the camera angles used attract the audience and how they challenge the audience.

Second Paragraph
Talk about the editing and how the effects used attract the audience and how they challenge the audience.

Third Paragraph
Talk about the Mise en scene and how the props, costume and location are used and how it attracts the audience and how it challenges the audience. Also in the paragraph you could talk about the sound.

Conclusion
Do a small summary on why the music video is challenging the audience compared to similar music videos of the same genre.

Does your product conform to or challenge genre conventions?

Introduction:the conventions of the thriller genre are to do with sound and editing. eg quick cuts and camera angle changes, music that gives tension . it can be to do with lighting, especially the use of shadow. mirrors and stairs are also conventions of thriller movies.The fast pace shots and quick editing are key to our thriller because these excite and can slightly disturb the audience which thrillers are supposed to do and we tried to stick to the normal thriller conventions.  

2) Does your product conform to or challenge genre conventions?

I think that our music video made to the song "turn to gold" both uses the conventions of standard rock videos but also challenges them in the way narrative of the video is set out and shown, it conforms in ways that an audience would expect it to and doesn't really try to be anything other than a rock video that its particular audience would have a positive response to.
The ways that our video conforms to what would be expected in rock videos is mainly the way it has been edited and the overall energy of the video. We used a hand held style of filming the video which gave the video an action packed feel that matched the the style of the song, this created a mixture of high and low angles, and when the two artist in the video are running up the stair case, it makes it feel like a chase scene or a desperation to reach there destination. This frantic style of filming can be found in many rock videos such as slipknot's duality video, our chorus section in particular draws similarity from that style of rock video. 
The only aspect of the video that could be considered to challenge the conventions of rock videos is the narrative with in the video. The way that the story is all about the artist and has an non-linear story where it starts at the end which is the chorus section and uses cross cutting to show the gradual  progression of the band members to there final destination and where they find the instruments on there journey to perform on the roof top. The fact that the story of the video purely consists of the band members and that its about there performance is not done very often, usually a rock video would have sections of a story either with the band members or separate charters or a mixture of the two and then have separate sections with the band performing like Paramore's "Misery business" video or simple plan's "untitled" video.            

How useful is it to apply media language to your work?

    Alot of the time it is useful to use media language to analyse products. By using mise en scene, cinematography, sound and editing as categories to analyse the effectiveness of the product overall a good structure is acheived in relaying the information and it is easier to pinpoint areas which are effective or perhaps need improvement.
    One of the main reasons using media language is effective when analysing a product is the fact that it breaks the analysis down into four important parts. This therefore makes it easier to pinpoint which areas of the product are effective and which parts are lacking which is obviously the whole point of analysis and would definately make the process of improvement easier. It also gives a more structured approach to whichever way you choose to present the information you discover about your product.
    However the negative side to this way of analysis is that when you present the information in this format someone who dosent know media terminoligy will not understand, meaning they would not be able to use this

To What Extent Does Your Work Challenge Audience Expectations

Our year 13 production was a video to a song by the band 'Audioslave', entitled 'Turn to Gold'. The song's production values were typical of the band, with the vast majority of the rest of their three album library being composed of fast-paced, fairly heavy rock music. Our video had the intention of appealing to long-term fans of Audioslave, so it stands to reason that it conformed to many of the conventions they will have come to expect, both from the band themselves and, more generally speaking, the rock genre of which they are part.

• Section 1 - processing of creating our video, related to the question. For example: When creating our video, we looked at numerous examples of 'real' rock music videos, as well as specific examples of videos from Audioslave themselves as an attempt to understand current audience expectations. Naturally, we wanted to differentiate our piece from the rest of the content on the market, so we made a conscious effort to challenge certain conventions while utilising others. Challenging them in this way stopped our video from being stale to audiences.
•  Section 2 - genre conventions. The first paragraph mentioned genre conventions in a general sense, here we will say specifically what they are. Mention other rock videos we looked at, such as Foo Fighters - The Pretender and others (make the rest up).
• Section 3 -

Which groups did you represent in your work?

Introduction: The representation of groups such as Gender and Indie style music has changed and developed throughout time. For example in the Classic Hollywood Films Laura Mulvey suggests they show women to be an object of desire for men and from this suggests the film use a 'male gaze'. In our music video the representation of gender, shows a challenge against Laura Mulvey's 'male gaze' theory as the mid to long shots do not portray an objectified view of the female character.

Gender paragraph:
-Women in our music video are not objectified through fragmented camera shots like close ups on the female anatomy. Our music video uses fixed mid to long shots which show the female character as an entirety.
- From this it shows a challenge against Laura Mulvey's 'male gaze' theory as it shows how the representation of gender has changed over time, especially the representation of women. Through the costume, and camera shots the music video shows that women are not always objectified in all media texts.
- Another theorist, David Gauntlett, which shows a change from the traditional view of women as a housewife/low status worker that has been kicked out by a feisty successful 'girl power' icon. The music video we made shows the female character to portray a type of dominance over the male artist as she is shown to be more confident and the focus of the video is mainly on the female character, although not in an objectified way.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, our music video manages to represent gender and the indie style music in a more developed and changed view than what had been in previous music videos or classic hollywood films. Therefore our music video shows how Laura Mulvey's 'male gaze' theory is slightly dated as the view of women has change through time as they have become more like 'girl power' icons, as suggested by David Gauntlett.

my thriller opening

our main goal for our thrillere opening was to keep it mysterious so the audience will keep focused to find out whats going on and will keep watching to find out. to keep the mystery we have fast pace shots and never reveal the identity of the characters to make sure we do not giving anything away. the fast pace shots and quick editing are key to our thriller because these excite and can slightly disturb the audience which thrillers are supposed to do and we tried to stick to the normal thriller conventions. are really like the split screen shots we put in. the split screens there to show the differences between the antagonist and protagonist it shows the different things happening at the same time which shows differences in their characteristics, for example she is working hard at work and he is slacking by sitting on a park with a coffee. the split screen shows they are different but it also shows they are connected, the link shown by the phone and the split screen. the girls screen shows order while the his screen shows the chaos that will ruin her order.

thriller opening analysis

Cinematography

- Camera Shots, time lapse shot, establishing shot, close up shot, zooming shot, match on action shot, over the shoulder shot, low angle shot, extreme close up. This variety of camera shots allowed us to give a number of different viewpoints and perspectives on both the build up and crucially the chase scene towards the end of the opening. They also help the viewer to establish what environment the opening was set in and how elements of the this environment assisted in setting the scene for this gritty urban kind of opening.

music video notes (turn to gold)

Our music video's  mise en scene consists of the stereotypical rocker social group rock outfits, black hoodies and checkered shirts, jeans and trainers this would make the audience who like rock music feel they might relate to the artist if they where similar clothes or make them feel in the fashion of there particular social group.
The editing was done to make the video have a good pace and to keep the video interesting. The use of jump cuts and the cinematography of hand held camera style of shooting makes the video feel rough and in the audience face and in its own way gives it a feeling of action. The way its shot to make the small  narrative that takes place with in the video about the band members traveling to there performance location, but showing the band performing at that location to begin with ( this is an nun-linear progression) this is done by using cross cutting to make it clear to the audience it also works by giving the audience a pay off at the end of that segment that will make them feel rewarded by watching the full video.
The sound of the song is a strong influence on editing and camera movement choices, this is because the audience like it when they see an moving image that flows well with the sound its being played along with.

 
   

Analysing our thriller from the point of view of Roland Barthes

Our thriller was a whirlwind tale of betrayals, hatred and fulfilling destiny. As such, there are many different levels of subtlety and imagery available to the viewer who seeks to unravel the threads of meaning within.

To demonstrate our skill as acclaimed filmmakers our piece features many elements that feature ambiguous meanings that must be evaluated by the viewer as to how they believe actions fit into the plot and what they may mean.

detailed notes on our music video.

Cinematography

The cinematography in our music video starts of with an establishing shot, of a car driving into the gates of the house, this is to show the audience where the video is set which then pans across to show off the 'flash' cars. The main shot through out the video was a mid-shot to show off the artists and the props through out the video. We also used extreme close ups on the 'booty shaking' this is because it links in with the title of the song, so by having an extreme shot it makes it stand out more. we also repeated that shot every time 'bootie music' came on. We also used close ups to show the background and the expressions of the lip-syncing by each artist. We also use zooms, to show off certain props and also using the speed up effect because R&B videos are typically about fast cars, so by having the footage speed up it attracts the audience more.

Editing


The editing in our music video was used to make the artists stand out and also the props used. We used a 'brightening' effect on the different shots such as the car shots, this effected the brightness of the lights on the car making the cars look more flash. We also used this effect on shots with the artist, this brightened up there clothing making it seem as if it had more 'bling'. We used many different transitions to go from scene to scene, such as fading, dissolving, wipes etc, this is to make the movement from scene to scene more smooth and makes the video look more 'flashy'.

Mise en Scene


The mise en scene in our music video contains backgrounds, clothes, props. The background which we used for this music video was similar to another 'git fresh'  R&B music video this was used to attract a similar audience type to the other music video as they are by the same people.

Coursework Analysis - Media Language

Our year 12 thriller video was entitled "The Mind Plays Tricks". Featuring stunning acting performances from Emile Cole and Tom "Stackhands" Phipps, it tells the opening to an epic tale of one boy's struggle to overcome adversity and the backstabs of his friends.

When creating our story, we put a vast amount of effort into the cinematography, mise en scene, sound and editing. What we dreaded was for our masterpiece to come across as poorly planned and thrown together at the last second.


When dealing with the cinematography, we stuck with mostly static, fairly long shots. In retrospect, moving the camera around in certain shots may have made the camerawork more interesting, as without every shot feels fairly standard, and by the end of the 2 minutes this gets fairly stale.

Other than the idea that the camera should have panned/moved a lot more during the piece, other aspects of the camerawork could have been improved as well. For example, a larger mixture of shot types could have added to the emotion of the piece. 90% of the shots are mid-angle mid-range well-framed shots; very predictable. The only experimentation

Roland Barthes theory to Thriller(R2 46) Disclosure

Roland Barthes theory suggests that an object placed in different contents exspress different meanings. For example in our thriller the main focus of communication is through phones which are usually used to make progression on situation such as something as simple as seeing where someone is, saving time, often resulting in a positive outcome. Through our opening we challenge this by inserting calls of distress, or problems in peoples lives. This moves onto the two main characters using phones to discuse the main problem in John's life which is left at a cliff hanger and the person at the call centre not knowing how to solve the situation when it should be the other way round.

Using roland barthes and semiotics to analyse "git fresh bootie music video'

Roland Barthes theory is the images used in various forms of media represent/ mean something in different forms of media.

We are using his theory in our 'git fresh bootie music video'. In this music video there is evidence of his theory for example chloe shaking her 'booty' to link with the title of the song used. We also used props such as expensive cars to represent real life r&b music videos as money is a key object in R&B music videos.

1) Representation




The representation of gender in this music video agrees with Laura Mulrey. She believes women are always shown in a explicit way. Close ups of the parts of the women to show a sexual nature, this was placed in the music video on purpose to attract a specific type of audience e.g. through out our music video we used the 'bootie music' title and linked it with chloe booty shaking. The men are also shown as quite dominant as they have all the 'bling' and cars.



2) Audience




We wanted the audience for the Thriller opening to interact with the text, so we wanted to set up unanswered questions for the viewer so that they continue to watch the film. The target audience would be young adults, as the characters are young, so its more likely to attract young people.  So the expectations would be to be able to slightly relate to the topics or situations brought up through out the film such as fear, sadness etc.

Analysis of coursework - representation & audience

1: Representation

For the opening shot of out thriller project consisted of, instead of just doing a basic shot of the main character walking into shot to introduce him, an aerial shot slowly zooming outwards. This allowed us to incorporate two things. One, the shot represents Emiles isolation and vulnerable which is the main point of the thriller and how Tom gains his trust. The second reason why we put in the slow zooming shot is so that we can make the end of the shot seem more suspenseful that it actually was, this would keep the audience engaged for the opening credits.

The end shot of our thriller project where Tom is talking to the phone to a stranger, this is a low angle shot, we did this to show now that Tom was the powerful one of the two.  Throughout the rest of the thriller we made sure not to include any other low angle shots etc. so not to give the audience a clue that Tom was anything more than a friend.

The gradual moving from afternoon to evening allowed us use the darkness to make Tom seem even more sinister at the crucial point in the story.

Audience Analysis of own Product

JLS - PCD music video audience analysis.


We want our audience to be active rather than passive because this is what keeps the audience attracted. We tried to make our video different in a way so that people remember it and talk about it. We also want people to be able to relate to the story and see their own lives in the video.
We want our audience to interact with the text because if the audience interact and relate to the lyrics they remember and learn the song, meaning they will watch the video more. This is why we emphasized the lyrics a lot in the video and put real meaning to the lyrics.
Our target audience would be young teenage girls mainly because our song is a love song and the main objective of the song is to follow a story of love and lust, meaning that the teenage girls will do the same, and wish they were the lusted girl.
Our classification would be a 'U' as there is nothing in the video which would be controversial, explicit or offensive.

Representation of own work

This is Martin's version of a thriller concept from last year (AS). It goes with some conventions of a thriller from the use of dark lighting to the use of being alone in a scary place.
The calming car drive adds to the audiences feeling of being reassured by the movie, as they feel it will not be that bad. But the use of the black and white sections adds an extra creepy feeling to the production.
By the movies title turning from white to red at the end, red symbolizing blood shows us that this film is not a simple childrens film, it will have blood and gore in it.

The use of a female as the protagonist shows the film shows a strong minded female character and that the film dosnt put women in a typical damsel in distress position when a male saves her.

Coursework analysis - narrative and genre

1: Narrative analysis.

For our thriller we used narrative in a number of ways. One way we did this was organising time and space into a compressed form. We did this by only telling part of the story - the opening scenes - in the two minutes availiable.

We also made clear whose perspective the story was being told from, Toms. However, at the same time we also made it clear that even though it was Toms story he was not the 'good guy'. We did this similarly through Emiles character. By showing him as not a 'normal' person this shows him to be the vulnerable, the way we did this was by his random 'fits'.

The narrative for our thriller was constructed through a number of elements. The main one was mise-en-scene. We used mise-en-scene to show the audience that this was a opening sequence for a film through the opening credits, for example. But more importantly we used mise-en-scene to show it was an opening sequence by introducing them to the characters, giving glimpses of their true personality but not all of it.

2: Genre analysis.

For a psychological thriller the main premise is that the conflict between the protagonist and antagonist is mental and emotional, rather than physical. Our thriller is primarily a psychological thriller, as Tom does not force 'the pill' down his throat to kill him, he however gains his trust and allows Emile to kill himself, in a sense. 

narrative analysis of music video.

Our music video for JLS' song PCD has a very specific narrative in it and is used to tell a story and link to the lyrics.

A story is told in our music video, it shows a love story evolve and develop throughout the song. we did this because people like and are interested in this type of narrative, we figured that if we chose this narrative and storyline, more people would be interested in our video and want to watch it.

we compressed the time in the storyline, the music video is only 3 minutes long and so we had to tell a whole story in that time, the love at first sight scene, the meeting up, the getting closer together and then the ending where they leave together. we did this by showing the important parts, where words weren't needed and you could tell what was going on purely by the body language.

we tried to link the lyrics in the song to what was going on in the video. "i fell for those big brown eyes and the sweetest smile"; we used an extreme close up of the desired girl here to show her big brown eyes and sweet smile to emphasis the point that she is lusted over.

There is constant cause and effect in the video, right from the very start, he see's the girl, he wants the girl, so he goes after the girl. during the video they get to know each other and because it turns out that they like each other, they go back to his house, this again is cause and effect method. this helps to write a better storyline because people can follow it easier making it more pleasing to the viewer.

we have the perspective being told from the featured male's point of view, because he is the one singing the song and the song and lyrics are all revolved around what happens in the video. if we changed the perspective to the featured female then the song and lyrics would change completly but then that is an option for a follow up song, which would be easy to promote as the same audience that watched this song would watch that and therefore all we would need to do is link that song to this.

Genre Analysis

hip hop what you see in hip hop uk elements why put in

The genre of our music video was hip hop which has many different conventions. In our video we tired to meet most of these conventions and element and also trying to meet some of the elements of uk hip hop/grime. the thing is genres change constantly, they are a fluid concept. they evolve to reflect different issues socially. one of the conventions is concentrated on was the fast pace cutting that we saw when researching and watching other peoples videos.

genre analysis: thriller

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A genre has a set of characteristic's recognized by audiences. We stick to the relative themes and conventions of a thriller, we kept to the thriller conventions by utilizing lack of resolution and enigma's.
We kept to the typical thriller conventions due to this is what the audience like to see and didn't want to effect viewings.
Genres are evolving and developing as time goes past, e.g equality of women and how graphic things have become in such things as violence, also they can contain sly messages from what is happening in the world at that time such as seeing terrorist in more recent films due to recent attacks. Our work is static to the thriller conventions at the moment but in 20 years or so it will of probably changed.

1) Genre analysis of 1 of your products (thriller or music video) 


We decided to analysis the genre on the opening of our thriller. Most thillers have the same characteristics, this is why we think you can genrise films/tv programmes, for example the music and narrative gives this away. 


But agreeing with Robert stams theory, there is many different ways to define films, it all depends on what the person personally feels is the key characteristic element of the film.




2) narrative analysis of 1 of your products.


The thriller tells a story

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Music Video Genre Analysis

This is Marty Martina's music video constructed by mainly him and partly by Ned, Emile + Minty.
This music video holds many characteristics of the rock genre, from the look of the artists in the video and the style in which it is shot and its location (in a gritty looking carpark). 
We stick to the conventions that audiences would associate with rock video's, by using dark lighting and rock items such as guitars and dark grebby clothing and log rocking out hair. And which if this where a real product would help the sales of the song by giving the audience what they want and are comfortable with.
We feel this music video meets expectations of the 'Rock' genre as a whole, by its incorporation of low lighting and extreme close-ups. There is also a large amount of jumping through-out the video sequence, which is also seen in many videos seen under the 'Rock" genre.

Genre Analysis on Thriller

What is genre?
Genre can be described as many things. it can be described as a set of characterstics recognised by audiences which functions like language - offering a set of rules and vocabulary with wich to organise meaning. It is not static. it is constantly renegotiated between audience and industry.

Above is a link to our Music video we completed for media last year. Though the genre is depicted as Thriller, the actual video does also contain different characteristics from genres like Horror. This is because over the past few decades, the thriller genre has been renegotiated to include some classic horror characteristics. Like for example the Quick editing found at 1:09 is an example of a classic type of editing found in the majority of horror movies. Over time this has become an editing technique used in Thrillers to keep the viewers attention. Examples like this help to prove the concept that genre can be renegotiated. Doing this allows a more similar relationship between audience and producer which helps further the risk of financial failure, as (in effect) more than one genre is used.

What is Narrative?
 The narrative of a film is the way that the story is told (How meaning is constructed in order to promote audience understanding).

From the opening you can get a glimpse as to what the film is going to be about. The narrative at the start helps to introduce the genre and the underlying story, as well as the overlying story (the underlying story being, the hitman-carer, and overlying being, the schizophrenic's life.), and it identifies these two narratives as being very different stories both merged into one film. If the film didnt have a narrative, it wouldn't be a film.
From the 4 minute film starter there a significant range of narratives have been identified, but none of them have finished. personally this makes me want to see how the rest of the film unfolds, so it would be good to see other audience's reaction given the same introduction.

the idea of the music video is to have three city guys listening to a new song as they go about their business. this relates to david gauntlett theory of identity as the three characters have similar identities as it is shown they like the same music. we made the characters city guys to relate to the audience as most of our audience are from cambridge, also genre of the music goes with the urban scenes.

Todorovs theory does not link into our music video as we do not include an equilibrium dis-equilibrium and new equilibrium as our music video does not have much of a narrative to follow this

applying theories to our own work

Our music video^^


David Gauntlett was interested in the effects debate, he disagreed with the fact that media influences people's actions our music video is not particularly controversial so would not be likely to influence poeples actions but some music videos such as 50 cent p.i.m.p this objectify's women and gives the impression that doing this is 'gangsta'. Some people would argue that videos like this makes people inspire to be like 50 cent and may treat women differently but David gauntlett critises the effects debate with ten different points.

Laura mulvey thinks that women are placed in film or music video's as a subject of desire. this can actually link in with our music video as we have a female actress in the video who is the subject of desire for the male singing the song. this then makes us desire her as well because she is wanted by the singer.


Tzvetan Todorov writes about the equilibrium theory, our music video does have a certain type of equilibrium change but not a drastic one that is the usual type. it does not have a dis-equilibrium, but there is an equilibrium and new equilibrium. at the start everything is normal and the singer is on a bridge, he then see's a woman walk past which he falls in love with and lusts over. he then spends the music video trying to seduce her which is then the change in equilibrium. at the end he succeeds in seducing her and walks off with her into the distance as a new equilibrium is made.

Applying theories to own work

In our music video you could apply David Gauntlett theory about how different social groups create and view media texts. In our media text we are in a mind set of older teens and young adults who are into rock music. Having this mind set created the look and style of the video which is what davids theory was about how different social groups create different looks and styles .  

Thriller analaysis

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Media Production Analysis - Using Current Theorists' Theories to Theoretically Theorise the Theories Behind Our Own Work, in Theory

Nedrick: Child of the Woods

One of the key techniques used in our Year 12 media piece aimed at children was sex appeal. This was done by taking off the majority of Ned's clothing and subtle rips in the clothing which we were unable to convince him to remove. This goes directly against the theory of Laura Mulvey, a feminist who believes that women in the media are used entirely for sex appeal and males are generally seen as the heroes of the piece. Also Emile's hair.

Also, the only woman in our video just so happens to be cleaning.

David Gauntlett's theories can be applied to our work by looking at the way childhood is represented to the children we are trying to appeal to. In our introduction, childhood is represented as an isolated, potentially lonely place. The titular protagonist has clearly spent far too much time alone and has become separated from society; much like the actor who plays him.

Applying Theory.

In this media form, women are exploited in a sexual way which links in with the theorist Laura Mulvey who was a feminist and believed that men are always shown as the heroes and women are always shown as the victims. As female producers we decided to exploit the woman in a sexual way to attract a male audience.

Ways theories can be applied to coursework

Music Video
- In a way our music video can be compared to Laura Mulvey's 'Male gaze' theory as our video focuses on a female character, with a male artist in between which could signify that the song is about the female and the artists feelings towards her. However our music video does not objectify women, as we have mainly used long to mid shots - instead of the close up and extreme close up shots that are related to objectification.
-Our ancillary texts of a dvd cover and magazine article do suggest that Laura Mulvey's 'male gaze' theory does apply to our coursework as we used a series of photographs of just the female from the video and not the artist so the main focus is on her. Although this could be seen as the female character has dominated the male artists life, showing Mulvey's theory of creating a new feminist avant garde of film making has been produced.
-Our music video can not relate to Todorov's theory of Equilibriums as there is no clear equilibrium, dis-equilibrium then new equilibrium. As our music video just contains a female dancing and having fun, mixed with shots of the artist singing, There was no narrative to our music video, as we wanted the music video to have a different feel to most of the other music videos. 
-Roland Barthes theory does also not relate to our music video, as he believes that in media texts there is an 'enigma code' which is a hook or mystery that needs to be resolved for an audience. In a small way, it may be seen our music video has an enigma code, as you may wonder what the significance of the female in the video has to the artist, however this may not be picked up by all spectators.
-David Gauntlett theory of fragmented construction of identity may relate to our music video. Fluidity of identities and the decline of tradition: traditional view of women as housewife/low status worker has been kicked out by a feisty successful 'girl power' icons. Whereas masculine ideals of absolute toughness, stubborn self reliance and emotional silence, have been taken over by a new emphasis on mens emotions, need for advice and problems of masculinity. Our music video has a slight relation to David Gauntlett's theory as the female may be seen as a 'girl power' icon, as she dominates the music video and there is only small scenes of the male artist.
- Vladimir Propp's theory of 'spheres of action' and that there are 32 basic categories of actions called functions, with 8 character types; hero, villain, donor, father, princess, helper, false hero and dispatcher. This theory does not relate to our music video as there is no clear character types that comply with Propp's theory, even though there is a male artist and female main character. This theory is more clearly related to our Children's film opening coursework, which did contain a Princess and an evil stepmother; who could have been the villain.

David Gauntlett

David Gaun

tlett is from the university of westminister, he does preojects using visual methods (drawing, collage and video) to get the brain working in a different way in comparison to using interviews and focus groups, he feels that visual methods is a more switched on hands on approach which hopefully gets more truthful results. He published a book describing all of this type of work called creative explorations in 2007.  He has similar ideas to the earlier theorist merleau ponty who said ''we live our lives in bodies'' he says that using our bodies is likely to lead to a more realistic response. David uses objects such as lego serious play which is a certain type of lego where people are asked to think and build in metaphor. He asks people to make their identity metaphorically with lego.

This model is an example but they can look like anything depending on the person   

 David argues that making the identity out of lego means they can express their identity as a whole rather than a list giving participants a sense of balance.

The study was conducted with 79 different people in a number of groups such as...

• Architects 
• unemployed people

• charity managers etc

overall there was a very diverse set of people he says it gives people a chance to communicate different types of information he says people get that chance to communicate using intangible concepts expressing things easier than trying to express it with words. You also get the fruitful additional meanings which is the primary meaning that you would get with words but also the additional meaning. He had 11 findings from this study but above all the most interesting was perhaps the set of tensions which people deal with every day and also the stories and metaphors we use circulated to a great extent by the media to understand our lives.

The effects debate-  The effects debate is the theory that the media has a big influence on the way that people act in everyday life. David disagrees with this theory he identifies ten things wrong with the theory:

1. The effects model tackles social problems 'backwards'
2. The effects model treats children as inadequate
3. Assumptions within the effects model are characterised by barely-concealed conservative ideology
4. The effects model inadequately defines its own objects of study
5. The effects model is often based on artificial elements and assumptions within studies
6. The effects model is often based on studies with misapplied methodology
7. The effects model is selective in its criticisms of media depictions of violence
8. The effects model assumes superiority to the masses
9. The effects model makes no attempt to understand meanings of the media
10. The effects model is not grounded in theory         

charles

Todorov's most notible piece of work was his work regarding  the definition of the Fantastic, the fantastic uncanny, and the fantastic marvelous. Todorov defines the fantastic as being any event that happens in our world that seems to be supernatural. Upon the occurrence of the event, we must decide if the event was an illusion or whether it is real and has actually taken place. Todorov uses Alvaro from Cazotte's Le Diable Amoureux as an example of a fantastic event. Alvaro must decide whether the woman he is in love with is truly a woman or if she is the devil.

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Laura Mulvey

'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' 1975
'Male gaze' - Argued cinematic apparatus of classical Hollywood cinema inevitably put the spectator in  masculine subject position, with the figure of a woman on screen as the object of desire, (political stand).
Wanted to radically challenge/reshape the filmic strategies of classic Hollywood with alternative feminist methods.
Called for a new-feminist avant garde of film making.

Objectify men




4.25


Objectify women

Tzvetan Todorov!

Tzvetan Todorov  (born March 1, 1939 in Sofia) is a Franco-Bulgarian philosopher. He has lived in France since 1963 with his wife Nancy Huston and their two children, writing books and essays about literary theory,thought history and culture theory. Todorov has published a total of 21 books. Todorov's historical interests have focused on such crucial issues as the conquest of The Americas and the Nazi and Stalinist concentration camps.

Todorov's theory is "the fantastic"; the fantastic is the study of whether a supernatural occurance is actually real and happenening or whether it has been an illusion. After deciding whether the event is real or an illusion, Todorov thinks we enter the stages of uncanny and marvelous. In the event of a fantastic uncanny, the event that has taken place is an illusion with an explanation; the fantastic uncanny can include dreams, drugs etc. In the fantastic marvelous the event has actually taken place which means the laws of reality have to change.
Todorov also developed the theory of the equlibriums; the equilibrium is the part of a film when everything is peaceful at the beginning, the disequilibrium is the opposite of the equilibrium in the way that it is when the bad stuff is happening and then the new equilibrium is when peace occurs again better than before.




Todorov's other theory is that of 'Equilibrium'

Todorov analysed these  3 steps

- Equilibrium

- Dis-Equilibrium

- New Equilibrium

Another way of breaking this down would be to use 5 steps

- Narrative Structure

- Development

- Complication

- Climax

- Resolution

-Narrative Function

(1. To organise groups of events into a pattern of cause and effect. 2. To organise time and space)

Roland Barthes

Full name	Roland Barthes
Born	12 November 1915
Died	25 March 1980 (aged 64)
Era	20th-century philosophy
Region	Western Philosophy
School	Structuralism Semiotics Post-structuralism
Main interests	Semiotics, Literary Theory

  
Theory: Collection of media such as films, TV, music videos or any other media collections are all made up of different images that represent something and have a different meaning for different things for example a 'rose', means love, valentines day, death, labour party, all depending on its context. 

Vladimir Propp

Vladimir Propp created a theory based upon the idea that every narrative(storyline) has a selection of stereotypical characters being:

The Hero – a character that seeks something

The Villain – who opposes or actively blocks the hero’s quest

The Donor – who provides an object with magical properties

The Dispatcher – who sends the hero on his/her quest via a message

The False Hero – who disrupts the hero’s success by making false claims

The Helper – who aids the hero

The Princess – acts as the reward for the hero and the object of the villain’s plots

Her Father – who acts to reward the hero for his effort

Not all story lines follow these conventions exactly but all roughly follow the same structure.


The Hero is Robin Hood he is the leading character and is paired up with Maid Marian, playing the princess role. The helper is Little John who stays by Robin throughout the film, trying to defeat and over come the villain, The Sheriff of Nottingham.

Minty!

Niche genre - a genre which appeals to a certain group of consumers

codes and conventions - the rules the media sticks to be part of any genre

theorists - john fiske described genres as attempts to structure some order into the wide of text and meanings

intertextuality - the shaping of texts' meaning by other texts. included is referencing and alteration of past texts

sementic - the ideas that a film is defined by its contents. for example guns, horses and cowboy hats in a western

syntatics -

Genre theory

Background of genre theory:
Genres make the film more efficient as well as more marketable. Andre basins work on westerns in the 1950's explores the significant advantages of genre from an institutional perspective.

Niche genre:
A niche genre is when a media text is created for a small specific audience, for example the vauxhall magazine is produced for vauxhall owners.

Codes and conventions:
Codes give meaning to an audience and conventions of the genre such as themes, ideologies and narratives. The codes and conventions are important for the instituions because there is a genre framework for the text and its more likely to attract audiences.

Theorists:
Propp - 32 functions and 8 charactersistics
Rick altman - Agruges that genres are usually defined in terms of either certain media language or ideoloiges or narratives. Semantic is conventions such as costume or mis en scene

Paper Toss Quiz

1. Background to Genre Theory - Categorizes different types of films or media products.
2. Niche Genre - a media product aimed at a specific market group, made for them.
3. Codes and Conventions - what we expect to get from a movie action film would have explosions, guns, fighting - our perception of the film. Specific to different viewers.
4. Theorists - Rick Altman, Andre Basin
5. Intertextuality is the way in which texts refer to other to media texts that producers assume audiences will recognize

Genre Theory

Another of the key concepts essential to the study of the media is genre. At its most basic level, genre means 'type'. Genre is a key concept due to many different reasons. The main individual theorist we consider when considering genre theory is John Fiske. He described genres as 'attempts to structure some order into the wide range of texts and meanings that circulate in our culture for the convenience of both producers and audiences.' Genre is, therefore, simply a way of categorising texts in our media-saturated culture.

G235 Analysis of Dog Soldiers - Theories and theorists

Roland Barthes:
- "Negotiated meaning" between  institution and audience: reader produces new meanings when reading a text
-"Cultural context" of consumption becomes as important as the content of the text
-Texts are 'networks' which relates closely to current multimedia texts; such as websites
-'Enigma code': the hook or mystery to be resolved for an audience.

Laura Mulvey:
-'Male gaze' - Argued cinematic apparatus of classical Hollywood cinema inevitably put the spectator in a masculine subject position, with the figure of a women on screen as the object of desire (political stand)
- Wanted to radically challenge/reshape the filmic strategies of classic Hollywood with alternative feminist methods.
- Called for a new-feminist avant-garde (experiment) film making

David Gauntlett:
-Fragmented construction; how the consumption of different media texts changes the way we identify ourselves.
-Fluidity of identities and the decline of tradition: traditional view of women as housewife/low status worker has been kicked out by a feisty successful 'girl power' icons. Whereas masculine ideals of absolute toughness, stubborn self reliance and emotional silence, have been taken over by a new emphasis on mens emotions, need for advice and problems of masculinity.
-Construction of identity has become a known requirement.

Tzvetan Todorov:
-Five stages of narrative: equilibrium, disruption, realization of disruption, repair disruption, new equilibrium.
-Stages can be applied to fictional/non fictional texts
-Adverts use this structure, to establish the product being used is the solution to a problem.

Vladimir Propp:
-32 basic categories of action: called functions
-'Spheres of action'
-8 character types: hero, villain, donor, dispatcher, false hero, helper, princess, father.
-Theory may or may not be useful way of deconstructing a text.

Ways theories can be applied to coursework:
- In a way our music video can be compared to Laura Mulvey's 'Male gaze' theory as our video focuses on a female character, with a male artist in between which could signify that the song is about the female. However our music video does not objectify women, as we have mainly used long to mid shots - instead of the close up and extreme close up shots that are related to objectification.
-Our ancillary texts of a dvd cover and magazine article do suggest that Laura Mulvey's 'male gaze' theory does apply to our coursework as we used a series of photographs of just the girl from the video and not the artist so the main focus is on her. Although this could be seen as the female character has dominated the male artists life, showing Mulvey's theory of creating a new feminist avant garde of film making has been produced.

Analysis of theories and theorists

Tzetan Todorov

analysis of Dog Soldiers.

Question one,
There is good use of cinematography throughtout the film,my favourite piece of film used in the film is when a solider is sat in the truck in the drivers seat facing forward, the camera is looking at him from his right through the window, this being a midshot. you cannot see in the back seat but you can tell there is a wearwolf in the back because you can see its breath breathing forward.
sound is used to create mood quite well, this diagetic sound could be through either dialog, music or just a background noise. the dialog could make different emotions, for example they were talking about football around a campfire and the mood is then high, the mood changes when they are peril and they are going to survive.
music is played at the point in the film when there is most danger, the only female in the film sits and plays classical music on the piano, however when it would usually make people happy, the mood is down and spirits are low.

Question two,
Mise en scene plays a big part in identifying the genre of the film. the film is an action thriller, one of the parts that show this is when the soliders open the back of the truck door to find it covered in blood and body parts all over the place. a werewolf also placed in the back of the truck creates sudden shock and realisation of the fact it is an action thriller. The soldiers react with gunfire, this shows the sound playing a part in the identification of genre as it is loud, explosive and constant. so much action is going on that the fast pace of the events unfolding make it interesting.


Question three,
THere is a clear equilibrium at the start when the soliders have just anded in scotland and they think they are on a training exercise, joking about football and every day things. there is then a dis-equilibrium which starts with a dead sheeep falling on the campfire there is then an even further dis-equilibrium when they find out what killed the sheep and they are confronted with real danger. the equilibrium is restored and the new equilibrium is revealed when the final wearwold is killed and the solider walks out into the sun revealing complete relief and silence.

Question four,
Gender has a strong stereotypical take on the film in that men are the strong ones and the only woman in the film needs protecting because she is helpless. The men are all generally strong physically and mentally so they take control of any situation at hand. This however is naive of the male characters because their downfall in the film is the fact that they are the alphamale characters and instinctively try to take care of the female character, because the female character is just as bad as the rest of the werewolf's, as she is one herself. so in effect she is "the biggest bitch of all" (a direct quote of what she says to herself).

Question five,
Dog soldiers represents the armed forces as strong alphamales who can do anything they want to if they put their minds to it. At the same time however it shows that they are real people and have a life outside of the army. The film shows that the armed forces are the strongest people in the world phyisically and mentally, showing how they can think quick under pressure and react to a situation. where alot of people would buckle under the pressure and panic, these army characters thrive under pressure.

Analysis of Dog Soldiers (Neil Marshall 2002)

1. What key features of editing, mise en scene, sound and cinematography can you identify? What meanings do these elements generate?


 Various different techniques are used within the film to create the moments of suspense and also the fast paced action moments when the werewolves attack. Examples of this can be found in different areas of mise en scene, sound and cinematography. For example the editing used put in effects like fast changes in shot in the action packed scenes when the werewolves atacked and in times of suspense used camera shots such as slow pans across the environment outside the house and in the woods towards the start of the film when the werewolves have not yet been sighted. This adds a large amount of mystery and makes the werewolves perhaps more scary because they appear so illusive but deadly. Sound is also something that builds up a huge amount of suspense as the eerie silence oppresses the characters almost as much as the werewolves themselves, also bringing in the effect of suprise on the audience when tey eventually do get attacked.

2. How do the technical elements you have identified help indicate the genre of the film? What other conventions do you think are evident in Dog Soldiers?


The genre of the film is a horror, and so the elements in the film help show this genre, for example by having a lot of eerie silences throughout the film to create suspense, this also makes it more jumpy. The fast editing shows the action and the slower editing shows a sense of suspense, this helps show the genre of the film because it creates horror.


3. Are there three clear stages to the films narrative? Does it have equilibrium, dis-equilibrium and new equilibrium structure?


4. How do you think gender is represented in this film?


I don't think genre is represented well in this film, as there arn't many female characters to show both genders in an equal way. Males are represented in a steoreotypical way, e.g. the soldiers being strong/masculine (fighting), for example  .The female role model is shown also in quite a masculine way, as she is shown defeating the dogs etc. 








Theorists


Roland Barthes 



He was born November 12th 1915 and died March 25th 1980








Laura Mulvey

Born August 14th 1941

Dog Soldiers (Niel MArshall 2002)

1. Fast paced editing to create a scary feel, because of the jumping around, creates suspence + excites the audience. The mise-en-scene is set in a remote isolated woodland which helps to add to the scary vibe, due to it always being misty and dark. The quietness of the certain scenes adds to the suspense. The diegetic sounds of the wolves rustling around in the bush + the lack of noise in certain areas adds to the suspense of the sequence.The cinematography of this film 'Dog Soldiers' differs very much, it is sometimes a hand-held - to give the view from the werewolves perspective.
These elements generate a scary thriller feeling to the movie.

2. The genre of this film is an action-horror. This film has a large absence of sound through-out to promote fear in those viewing the film. In my opinion a typical film of the Action Thriller genre should contain elements of mystery, include fight scenes of which are either physical or explosive fighting or both. The plot should leave audiences cliff-hanging and contain tension throughout. A hero (or several) is essential for the film to function properly. 


3. The equilibrium is where things are good and going along smoothly. Dis-equilibrium is when things turn bad. A new-equilibrium is when the things turn good again, but things have changed. The equilibrium seen in this film is at the start of the film where they are on the training mission. The dis-equilibrium in this title is where the wolves are hunting their prey. The new-equilibrium is where Pvt. Cooper (Kevin Mckidd) survives the event but kills all the bad-guys (the werewolves) but after it all he is changed.

4. I think gender is male dominated, from a male POV. They're cartoon characters because a cartoon character has exaggerated characters. IT is not a film for dialogue it is just a film for gore.


5. they're mean!


6. 18+ year olds


7. 18-21

Analysis of Dog Soldiers

1.  Quick editing and short shots in the action scenes,
foresty surroundings giving an eerie feeling in the non-action scenes. Gives a sense of isolation.
Sounds effects shown through growling of the wolves and gun noises, not much non diagetic music since a lot of time is spent building up suspense. Calmer, soft music when the woman was staring out of the boarded up window to show she has a connection with the werewolves.
AT the end when the sergent was lying on the floor filling the gas filled room the wolves walked in there was a low angle shot on the wolves to show a sense of false authority...  also cut into an extreme close up of the sergents eyes when he's just turning into a warewolf, which is needed to show the transformation in more detail.

2. The quick editing in the film gives an impression that this film is an action film and the werewolves in it gives it a sci-fi horror genre.

3. Equilibrium is a point in a which the film runs smoothly. This happens at the beginning of the film where the soldiers are dropped off in the forest to do their training. A dis-equilibrium is where a disruption happens in the film. This happens when the cow drops from above them and causes discomfort amongst the group and confusion of where the dead creature comes from. The new equilibrium is the resolution of the film. An example of this is when Pvt. Cooper exits the house after all the werewolves are dead and he survives.

4.  Typically, the majority of the soldiers in this film are male. Stereotypes are played upon throughout with the male characters behaving like cliche 'lads'; one of the characters mentions throughout that all he wants to know is the results of the football match. On the other hand, the female character responds by saying that she didn't even know the football was on, again playing to stereotypes.

Analysis of Dog Soldiers (Neil Marshall 2002)

1. What key features of editing, mise en scene, sound and cinematography can you               identify? What meanings do these elements generate?

There are jump cuts between extreme close up fragmented body party of the werewolves and mid shots of the soldiers to keep the werewolves mysterious. Fast editing in attack scenes to keep pace. using a combination of loud sound and jump cut to create a jump scare for example when a body fall from the ceiling into the basement. the mise en scene is the soldier uniform and army gear. the werewolves are an elaborate mix of animatronics, prosthetics and latex, this would of been a choice to make the wolfs feel more real. There isn't much of a soundtrack apart from large scale establishing shots to set the mood and when an emotional scene happens, there always seem to have a military drum beat in the background to create a feel of brothers in arms. 

2. how do the technical elements you have identified help indicate the genre of the film ? what other conventions do you think are evident in dog soldiers?   


The jump cuts to get a scared reaction indicate the horror elements of the horror genre. Also the lack of music and the more use of sound effects like the breathing of the wolfs.
The action scenes using fast pace editing and extreme close ups on the action are typical of the action genre.    


3. Are there three clear stages to the films narrative? Does it have an equilibrium, dis-equilibrium and new equilibrium structure?


Yes, there is an equilibrium at the start with the soldiers on a training mission then the dis-equilibrium when the cow falls down on them and while the attacks happen, then a new equilibrium when the single soldiers survives. 


4. How do you think gender is represented in the film? 


gender in this text is dominated by the male figures, being soldiers of the army they are stereotyped to be strong sexist grunts. this is shown in the text as the female character is looked down on by other members of the crew when it comes to fighting and defense. after she has 'proven' intelligence she is then given a gun because they think that she is not capable of helping this 'war'. she then turns  into a bitch. LITERALLY  she had betrays them all.

Desserts - Ewan McGregor - McGreggy

I think that the short film can be related to more than one of the theory's. It could relate to Claude Levi-Strauss' which is about opposites, in the case of Desserts there is an opposite in who the fishers are so roll reversal where the fish become the hunters rather than humans fishing for fish.
It can also be related to Rolande Barthes theory about the audience will get there individual own meaning from texts useing there own experiences on top of what they are seeing. Desserts also has an ending where we dont see what happens to Ewan McGregor which would be up to the audience watching like the "enigma code" which is basically a mystery to be solved.  
It can also relate to Todrov, which starts with an equilibrium then a disruption of this equilibrium by an event (the hook in his mouth) then a realization and and a reapir trys to happen where he trys to struggle aginst the hook, then the equilibrium returns but a new one to what it started as.