Exam Guidance

YOUR EXAM IS 13th MAY 2013

COUNTDOWN CLOCK WEBSITE

The AS media studies course is split into two units: MS1 (Exam) 50% and MS2 (Production) 50%.

Q1. This will be an unseen extract/media which will require you to use your skills that you have developed in class in order to answer the questions accordingly. The question is usually worth 40 marks.

Possible formats are:

• TV/Film
• Magazines
• Comics
• Website
• Newspaper/News clip
• Advertisement (print or moving image based)
• CD cover
• DVD cover
• Radio
• Computers games extracts
• Music videos.

This about the range of codes and conventions that have been covered as well as the codes.

• Visual codes
• Audio codes
• Technical codes
• Written codes
• Language
• Narrative

Q2 a) This will be relating to either potential target audiences or how age, gender, ethnicity, events, issues or national and regional identity are represented in the media from question 1. This is usually worth 4 or 5 marks.

Q2. b). These questions will usually be based on question one and can include representation.

The questions below can flip each year.

Q2. c) This question is relating to texts studied in class. The question will either ask you about audience or representation. This is usually worth around 15 marks.

Q3. This question is relating to texts studied in class. The question will either ask you about audience or representation. This is usually worth around 30 marks.





Representation: (Positive/Negative)

• Representations will vary depending upon their context.
• They will dependant on their genre.
  This will affect what is shown and how it is shown as it must adhere to specific plots, mise-en-scene, music etc.
• They will dependant on the producer. Each institution has their own targets and values, which will affect the representations they show. For example, Disney will select and create representations that reinforce their values of ‘dreams coming true’. Whereas Director Tim Burton shows a darker side to the world. produce satirical and dark representations.
• Audiences will interpret them in different ways.
• do they conform or defy our expectations?

Possible representation topics:


Stereotypes

• Stereotypes will change and evolve or even disappear over time.

Audiences

Target Audience

It is vitally important that you are aware of the audience so you can tailor your representations to suit. If you are creating a teen movie then stereotypical geeks, cheerleaders etc will help the audience identify with the characters and genre. Representations that are offencive or unrecognisable will alienate your audience.

• Audiences can be categorised by age, gender, sexuality. ethnicity, religion, nationality, ideologies, culture and background.
• Audiences will respond differently depending on the above.

Technical, Visual and Audio Codes

• Can affect how characters are shown to us and as thus alter our perceptions. Think effects of high angles and close-ups.

Terminology and key words

• Polysemic: When something has one or more meanings.
• Ideology: A set of values/ideas upheld by society.
• signify/signifies/represents/dennotation/connotation.

Mock exam review

View more presentations from Dawnsmedia.

MS1 Representation Question- Section 2C or 3: Example Structure and Texts to be used for each topic

Introduction:

You need to write a short introduction that refers to the question and that shows you understand the concept of representation so you may include:

• The fact that representations represent groups, individuals, issues, places etc

• Representations are SELECTIVE, MEDIATED and BIAS.

• Representations are CONSTRUCTED by producers to communicate particular meanings to the audience about a group or individual and their position in society.....

• Representations change over time as ideologies and attitudes in society change

•  Representations often communicate social ideologies and conform and challenge dominant representations presented in the media.

Main Body:

IMPORTANT POINT:

If the question is worth 15-20 marks (Q2c) you must use 2 detailed examples (no more), If the question is worth 30 marks (Q3) you should use 2-3 examples (preferably 3)

You need to use examples from different formats (e.g. 1 Film, 1 TV, 1 Print Advert)

In the main body you must approach the texts you have studied in class.  The example you use must be relevant to the focus topic in the question (representations of: Gender, Issues, Regional/ National Identity, Ethnicity, Events, Age).  For each textual example you use you need to explore:

1. Define the representation presented- who, what, where, why?

2. Break down how the representation has been constructed through discussing a specific sequence/ print product (focus on audio, visual, technical codes)

3. Identify any stereotypes that are being presented as ‘the norm’

4. Define the ideological implications of the representation

5. Consider if the representation is positive or negative and reasons for this

6. Consider the impact of the representations on the audience

7. Give possible institutional motivations for the representations

Conclusion:

You need to approach the question directly (e.g. women can be represented differently in the media today because... we can see this in.....), answer it by briefly summing up the points you have explored.

Codes: Reading a Text

Film Language

One of the first things to understand when starting to study film is the academic language that goes with it. One of the key theories is semiotics.

Semiotics is the study of signs and their meanings. Films are made up of thousands of these signs and it’s up to film students to decode them to discover their meanings.

For example, if we see the colour red there are meanings associated with it such as, anger, danger and heat. These meanings are the connotations of the colour.  While the colour, which is the literal thing, is the denotative.

·         Denotation/The literal. E.g. A large dark space filled with old trees.

·         Connotation/The hidden meaning. A creepy forest with danger lurking.

What do you think the denotations and connotations of these are?

 

Technical Codes
Visual Codes
Audio Codes
Written Codes

Technical

• Camera (Shots, Angles, Movements)
• Framing, Focus and Depth of Feild
• Lighting
• Editing

Camera Shots

• Ariel Shot (usually taken from a helicopter, looking down, often establishes a scene or conveys drama)
• Profile Shot (profile of the character, often deep in thought)
• Over the Shoulder Shot (looking from behind a person to the subject)
• Point of View Shot (looking from a characters point of view)
  

Camera Angles

Camera Movements

Deep Focus

Shallow Focus

 

Lighting

Low Key lighting

High key lighting





Mise-en-scene:

This is basically refering to everything 'in the scene'.

• Setting
• Props
• Costumes and Make-up
• Characters movement and expression
• Colour

Editing

______________________________________________________________________________

Analysing a film sequence

Boyz N the Hood

Analyse the following sequence, commenting on:

• Visual codes
• Audio codes
• Technical codes



Key Theories: Representation, Narrative, Audience and Genre

Theories


Representation:

• They way in which the media constructs real life. Media Texts can dominate  societies representations or challenge them.
• Representations change over time with social, political and ideological changes. It refers to people, places, events, ethnicity, class, age and gender etc.
• Representations contain a ‘grain of truth’ that stems from historical and/or ideological roots.  This is ‘common sense’ or the way things have always been.
• The ‘re-representation’ of the world: not raw reality but a mediated version of it. A manipulated view of what the media want to show you. This is called mediation.
• Representations are representative i.e. a kind of shorthand, images which speak on behalf of a wider group. ‘All people in this group are like this’ – They are typical.  These repeated images become stereotypes.
• The circulation of stereotypes makes for easier audience recognition and understanding.  This in turn reinforces common sense views which can be dangerpus.
• The concept of representation describes a selective process through which the media circulate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTzMsPqssOY

 

Narrative:

Narrative

The narrative of a story refers to the way in which the story is pieced together not the actual storyline.

·         Linear Narrative- the story is edited together chronologically. They have an established beginning, middle and end and it usually makes sense.

·         Non-Linear- the story does not follow a particular order, it is fragmented and can start with the ending or in the middle or any combination throughout, work backwards, include flashbacks and flash forwards and generally harder to follow. Basically the more you watch the more the plot is gradually unveiled.

·         Multi-Strand Narrative-follows more than one story at the same time within the film.

Todorov

Classic narrative structure

Equilibrium → Disequilibrium → Equilibrium

Or simply put:

Order →Disorder →Order

Propp

Most narratives follow a function as do the characters. He analysed fairytales to look at basic structures.

1. Villain — struggles against the hero.
2. Mentor —character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off.
3. Helper — helps the hero in the quest.
4. Princess or Heroine — the hero deserves her throughout the story but is unable to marry her because of an unfair evil, usually because of the villain. The hero's journey is often ended when he marries the princess, thereby beating the villain.
5. Father — gives the task to the hero, identifies the false hero, marries the hero, often sought for during the narrative. Propp noted that functionally, the princess and the father cannot be clearly distinguished.
6. Donor —prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object.
7. Hero or victim — reacts to the donor, weds the princess.
8. False hero — takes credit for the hero’s actions or tries to marry the princess

Levi Strauss

Strauss said all texts work in Binary opposition. The idea is that all narratives are driven by conflict such as good vs evil. Each force in a narrative has an equal opposing force which can restore the balance within the text.

Eg. Characters could be shown as: Rich and Poor, Strong and Weak, Old and young.

Action Codes: What will happen next. Gun pointed at a character then followed by the victim. Drives the narrative forward.

Enigma Codes: Leave the audience questioning what is happening (Who is this character? Who is the killer? What will happen next? Who does this belong to?

“Men act. Women appear.”

John Berger in Ways of Seeing (1972)

‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’

 Laura Mulvey in Screen, (1975)

Mulvey’s famous article about the way the gaze in mainstream Hollywood films has been constructed, was first published in a film journal called Screen in 1975 and has been hugely influential. Her ideas are quite complicated and they have been criticised because they only describe the way the male spectator views a film.

Mulvey argues that visual pleasure is constructed in two ways:

1. Scopophilia or the pleasure of looking/voyeurism à the pleasure of using another person as an object of sexual stimulation through sight.

In films women take on an exhibitionist role, their appearance is constructed for strong visual and erotic impact      

2. Narcissism or identification of the ego with the image on the screen.

Men may feel they can identify with the protagonist and his values as he makes a play for the women he feels he rightly deserves.

Mulvey’s point is that mainstream Hollywood films are constructed to appeal to a male gaze and as a result women in such films are constructed as the object of that gaze. Therefore, according to Mulvey, female view. Some argue that this may be down to the fact that the creators of the media are predominantly male where others argue that this is simply down to the conventions of society.

This idea has been challenged by other feminist film critics and indeed Mulvey revised her own ideas in a later article published in 1981. In ‘Afterthoughts on “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”’ argued that women oscillate between masculine and feminine positions.

When studying representations in relation to the ‘gaze’ it is important to ask yourselves the following questions:

1.     How do men look at women

2.     How women look at themselves

3.     How women look at other women

Audience:



The question relating to audience will appear in section 2(c) or 3. This is usually worth 15-30 marks.

Audiences can be categorised in a number of ways:

General Profile

• Age
• Gender
• Sexuality
• Ethnicity
• Religion
• Nationality
• Ideologies
• Culture
• Background

Demographics

·         A: Upper Middle Class

(Top management, bankers, lawyers, doctors & other professionals)

·         B: Middle Class

(Middle Management, teachers, many ‘creatives’, eg. Graphic designers.)

·         C1: Lower Middle Class

(Office supervisors, junior managers, nurses, specialist clerical staff etc)

·         C2: Skilled Working Class

(Skilled workers, tradespersons)

·         D: Working Class

(Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers)

·         E: People at the lowest end of income

(Pensioners, Unemployed, students, casual workers)

In your audience question you should state how audiences can be categorised as these are who you will be referring to. You will also need to include a range of theories.

Uses and Gratifications

Information 

•   finding out about relevant events and conditions in immediate surroundings, society and the world
• seeking advice on practical matters or opinion and decision choices
• satisfying curiosity and general interest 
• learning; self-education
•  gaining a sense of security through knowledge

Personal Identity

• finding reinforcement for personal values 
• finding models of behaviour 
• identifying with valued other (in the media)
• gaining insight into one's self

Integration and Social Interaction 

• gaining insight into circumstances of others; social empathy
• identifying with others and gaining a sense of belonging
•  finding a basis for conversation and social interaction
• having a substitute for real-life companionship  
• helping to carry out social roles
•  enabling one to connect with family, friends and society

Entertainment

• escaping, or being diverted, from problems 
• relaxing
• getting intrinsic cultural or aesthetic enjoyment 
• filling time
• emotional release 
• sexual arousal
  
  
  Stuart Hall's Reception Theory: Preferred, Negotiated and Oppositional Readings.
  
  PREFERRED
  What meanings do the producers intend you to take from this product? You will respond appropriately to the text. You will engage and understand the characters, laugh at comedy and cry at emotional dramas etc.
  NEGOTIATED:
  How might the audience take on board the preferred reading but contextualise it with other factors to gain a balanced or sceptical view of the product. You may engage with parts but equally reject other parts of the text that you disagree with.
  
  
  OPPOSITIONAL
  How might the audience reject the preferred reading? What factors could contribute to the audience’s opposition to the preferred meaning? You did not engage with the text, you may have been offended by issues represented or it may offer completely different values to your own.
  
  Your Response
  
  
  

  Your response to the products is valid if you concider: 

  
  

  - Are you the target or secondary audience?

  
  

  - Your ideologies and general make-up (not cosmetics!! Your Gender, Nationality etc)

    

  - The context within which you experienced the product (where, when you experienced it and what other knowledge might you have gained that influences your reading?)