using conventions of real media texts

post-prodution mind map

creativity mindmap

Research and planning mind map

Digital Technology mind map

1a Exemplar Essay

Section Question 1a) Exemplar Essay 20/25 marks

EXPLANATION, ANALYSIS, ARGUEMENT

EXAMPLE

TERMINOLOGY

1a) Over the two year media course we had to produce both a foundation portfolio of a school magazine and music magazine as well as an advance portfolio of a horror teaser trailer, film magazine – developing foundation skills further and a poster to advertise our trailer.

In the first year we researched existing music magazines and analysed each one so that we could gain knowledge of particular layouts, fonts and key elements that need to be contained in our production to make it successful. Research and planning allowed us to recognise ‘mastheads’ on magazines as being the most important and therefore the need to focus on a font more detailed to keep continuity with the contents page and double page spread which we also had to create.

Personally I researched ‘Rock’ magazines such as Kerrang, NME and others because I had chosen after carrying out a questionnaire to use Rock music as my theme. The real life media texts allowed me to visualise my favourite parts from each magazine – ripped sticker graphics and broken font on my own work which I then attempted to recreate within Photoshop CS4. In year 1 we were limited to what we could research because magazines were the only theme however, in the second year I was able to develop my ability to research real life media texts much further because we had a range of products we needed to create all under the ‘horror’ genre this time. I was able to research teaser trailers analysing my favourite and least favourite parts allowing me to plan with a mood board which I produced from a range of stills from previous horror films my ideas for my own trailer which helped me to develop my production of my products in relation to real life media texts and techniques such as restricted narration and handheld camera found in the ‘Blair Witch Project’ trailer which inspired my trailer ‘Laquem’ which is also set in the woods. Research into film documentaries like the ‘American Nightmare’ inspired me to create a product which reinforced fear and went against usual horror conventions to make it more interesting. Over the second year research became so important to achieving a product which was realistic and is now like my own distributed on YouTube as a real life media text of its own.

Real life media texts like advertising film posters were able to help me develop my Photoshop skills further because I was able to push myself with the ‘colour burn’ filters and want to create the scary atmosphere of my trailer from just an image and text which I found really fun.

Research into film magazines allowed me to develop my work from AS level so much further because I was able to produce a high standard piece of work in two weeks this year when the magazines took over 3 months last year which shows how much my skills have improves just by being able to constantly refer back to real life media texts for inspiration and even colour schemes that work well together such as black and red which in the first year I just found experimenting with. Research into horror trailers allowed me to recognise different styles of film and how we like Alfred Hitchcock could be an auteur creating new angles and ideas using generic conventions as well as unconventional representations that I have picked upon when watching films and analysing certain techniques which I have then attempted to do in Final Cut Pro when editing certain shots together to create collision cutting and changes in pace which my trailer does extremely well. I was inspired initially by the hand held camera in the trailer REC and the fact I want as an auteur to change the stereotyped representations to be able use a female psycho killer.

Research also allowed me to produce text and inter-titles that shook in order to capture my audience but narrating the story slightly so the shots when together made sense. Research into types of camera movements needed were really helpful and allowed me to completely change the pace with tracking shots and handheld camera which I noticed was used in Silent Hill and American Werewolf in London which I analysed and placed on my blog for reference as some pieces of footage I wanted to recreate including the final girl representations.

EAA 8/10

EG 8/10

T 4/5

(20/25)

learnzone blog

http://henleycollegemediablog.blogspot.com/

Question 1a

you need to descirbe and evaluate your skills and development  over the course of your production work -  this can include the preliminary tasks your actual c/w and many other pieces you have created in the past year

Digital technology- cameras, windows movie maker, email, internet, phones, facebook, msn ,blogger, slideshare, itunes, dv cameras, youtube, podcasts, microphones, adobe photoshop, microsoft powerpoint & word.

As in terms of development, what you used differently form A2

Creativity- had to make decisions about genre, music, lighting etc... had to produce film posters and magazine reviews in A2 so more confident and gained better creativity skills.

Comparisons between As and A2?

Did technology enhance creativity?

Research and planning- primary e.g. films, magazines, youtube, internet, questionaires, audience feedback. Secondary e.g. interent, textbooks, blogs.

Advantages & disadvantages of sources?

How did we organise it ?

what we actually researched

did drafting help?

what did you learn from working a  group and then indiviually?

how organised were we?

how did audience feedback effect/ improve our planning ?

how did you present your research, slide share, blogger, flickr etc...?

Post- production-  difference between as and a2 work

did post production skills develop?

Using convention from real media texts- what conventions did you use or look at e.g. magazines, film openings ?

explain how your text is similiar and different from an identified real media text

Highlighted section B exemplar question

Section Question 1b) Exemplar Essay 24/25 marks

EXPLANATION, ANALYSIS, ARGUEMENT

EXAMPLE

TERMINOLOGY

1b)

The media production I am going to write about in relation to genre is my favourite piece from the whole course which is my horror teaser trailer.

The genre of the trailer is obviously ‘horror’ and this in itself allowed us to be creative with narrative etc but limited us because we had to stick to a certain amount of generic conventions in order for it to be recognised by its existing target audience. Steve Neal said that ‘genre is a repetition with an underlying pattern of variations’ which meant certain generic features had to be included and repeated which in my case was the use of a creepy location of the woods as well as hand held camera and restricted narration to cause disorientation and suspense within our trailer. However, the pattern of variation Neal describes also links to my horror teaser trailer because we were able to creatively push the boundaries by twisting some generic features in order to make the trailer interesting and therefore cause the audience to want to watch the full movie. For this my group chose use a female psycho killer I order to subvert the stereotypical male dominated role. This female identification through point of view shots etc captured our female audience because were providing them with power and this is unusual for the horror genre although it is known for its forward thinking approach as it often attempts to focus on subcultural views instead of targeting the mainstream. Genre encompasses many parts and the trailer links to it in more ways than one. Its use of enclosed location and the fact the woods attempts to reinforce our society’s fear of loneliness and isolation which the woods creates when the three friends get lost. In these sections of the trailer we used a lot of heavy cross cutting between the female victim who is running anxiously through the woods in order to find her friends and get home safely. We also used the Kuleshove and collision cutting methods as the pace began slow as the friends head our in the car unaware of the danger before them and once they are in the woods we deliberately quickened the pace of editing to cause tension and to show that something is not right, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats.

Editing and mise-en-scene is really important to genre and reflects very quickly certain moods and atmospheres. Levi Strauss and Roland Barthes argued that the horror genre like many others used ‘binary oppositions’ in order to show the contrast between good and evil in order to force the audience to be constantly questioning the trailer for example; in my trailer I used light and dark to connote their happiness and carefree attitude in the daytime and the darkness to emphasise their fear and reliance on their senses. This is particularly important to the horror genre as characters are often shown in high angle shots to appear vulnerable and therefore under threat.

Gore or ‘body horror’ is also a common generic convention used by most horror films that we studied including Dawn of the Dead by George A. Romero who used it to make the audience feel sick by forcing them to see extreme violence. In my own trailer we were inspired to use gore differently by showing a hanging scene in slow motion to create tension and the centoring in on the face and neck which had been broken and this was shown by the rope burn we had made from latex and the blood pouring down her chest. This shot moves clockwise and slowly zooms in to force the audience to see what the hang (woman) has done. In our final two shots we finish the trailer with the male anti hero being lifted off the ground with blood pouring out of his mouth which causes the audience to assume no one survives because the final girl is stabbed by her friend accidentally which quickens the pace and adds tension but she is the survivor who as Carol Clover suggests will be terrorised throughout the film and finally overcome the monster. This plays with the audiences emotions and links back to the horror genre well by creating our own style of horror. Andrew Sarris argues because it encompasses so much and is key to explaining a film. Genre is the ideas that collectively make a particular recognisable style that draws in its existing target audience. My horror trailer had expressionist camera angles as the female victim desperately trips over the camera and we see her running above it as well as close ups of her facial expression that causes us to identify with her fear and therefore makes us scared. This meant the audience also were forced to objectify the female victim from the high angle camera shot down her top in which we can see her breasts slightly after watching other Hitchcock movies which use the male gaze theory by Laura Mulvey to force us to take a male’s viewpoint.

In my trailer we also used an iconic symbol of the noose because obviously as a hangwoman she needed the prop but also as a female the circular shape suggested female power and this is something the horror genre often does but for male characters using guns etc as phallic symbols which we also used as the male anti hero takes out a knife and stabs his friend frantically when she walks up behind him. The horror trailer was made much darker in Final Cut Pro using the brightness and contrast menu and also dragged the saturated colours towards the blue in order to create a dark, dusky night time atmosphere a generic convention of horror trailers.

The generic conventions we chose to use were all important to the success of our product and since distributing it on YouTube we have over 4000 which I am really pleased with and gives me the confidence that we obviously stuck to the genre enough to capture our intended target audience but were creative enough to make people want to keep watching the trailer and virally sharing it with others.

Genre places a media text into a grouping giving it an identity which can be recognised by the mainstream society and I believe my product is successfully fitted to the horror genre using the narrative that todorov argued was important to the horror genre by following an equilibrium at the beginning then a problem which in our case was the male anti hero playing a joke on the soon to be female victim making jump running after him causing their separation then a pathway to resolution – as they attempt to find each other and then a new equilibrium at the end which we deliberately left as an open ending to capture our audience effectively.

EAA 10

EG 10

Term 5

(24/25)

Total Section A 45/50

exemplar sentences

1) STEVE NEAL said that genre is a repetition with an underlying pattern variations which meant certain genric features haf to be included and reprerated which in my case was the use of creepy location of the woods as well as hand held cameras and restricted narration to cause diorientation and suspense within our trailer

2)We also used the KULESHOVE and collision cutting methods as teh oace begsn slow as the friends head in our car unaware of the danger before them and once they are in the woods we deliberteley quickened the pace of editing to cause tension and to show that something is not right keeping the audience in the edge of their seats.

3)Levi STRAUSS and ROLAND BARTHERS argud that the horror genre like many others used "binary" oppositions in order to show the contrast between good and evil in order to force the audience to be constantly questioning the trailer for example in my trailer in i used light and  dark to  connote  their happiness and carefree attitude in the daytime and teh darkeness to emphasise their fear and relaince on their senses.

4)This meant the audience also were enforced to objectify the female victim from the high angle camera shot dowen her top in which you can see her breats slightly after watching other Hitchcocks movie which in use the male gaze theory by LAURA MULVEY to force us to make a males viewpoint.

5) The horror trailer was made much darker in final cut pro using the btightness and ontrats menu and also dragged the saturated colours towards the blue in order to create a dark dusky night time atmosphere a genreic convention of horror trailer

6) I believe my product is succesfully fitte dto the horror genre using the narrative that TODOROV argued was importnant tot he horror genre by following an equilibrium at the beggining then a problem which in our case was the male anti hero playing a joke on the soon to be female victim.

narrative essay ( not finished)

Narrative essay.

In this essay i am going to use my advanced portfolio production work in relation to the narrative and the research and development of this. After watching a number of dramas including skins and shameless etc... I decided on the narrative of my film based on the knowledge i had just gained from watching the dramas and finding out that they are inspired/ based around real life incidences. So this is when i chose the narrative for my advanced portfolio the narrative i chose is based on a girl who has been driven to insanity and now struggles daily with the time passing by, and we watch the struggle and outbursts of her and how she feels about feeling forgotten.

 In alot of dramas mental health is a constant occurrence so i wanted to follow the conventions but also challenge them by producing a film with no dialogue. In developing a narrative for my short film i then had to take into consideration the representation of characters, e.g. i had to make the character appear as vulnerable and weak so i used a lot of tilt down shots and a lot of close ups to show the strong emotion on the characters face.

genre essay

Genre essay.

In this essay i am going to use my advance portfolio production work in relation to the research and development of genre. My advance portfolio is a short, no dialogue drama.

In order to gain an understanding of the genre specific elements of a drama i had to watch some e.g. skins, shameless etc... In doing this i gained a better understanding of the target audience that i would have to specify and aim my short film to which is students (15+) by doing this i got an idea of the characters in which to use, the possible narrative of the film so exaggerated real life incidences, the representation of the film e.g. how to make the my film appeal and be effective to my target audience.

In researching the genre of my film and choosing one then limited me in the production of my film. For example by choosing a drama the mise en scene has to be relatable and realistic as that it is one of the conventions of a drama they are very much based on real life situations. With the genre it’s not just that which you have to take account of, it also involves narrative, audience, representation, and within these the lighting, mise en scene, sounds, camera angles etc... So in effect the genre is the most important factor to decide on as it then limits the above issues.

In my advanced portfolio i tried to challenge forms and conventions of real life media texts of dramas as i decided to produce a no dialogued script, which meant the representation of the character, had to be very as that along with he music had to tell the narrative of the short film, and help in making the film an effective one for the audience.

In conclusion i think that i managed to produce a short film and apply the conventions of drama’s to it as well as challenge the conventions, and i think this was successful as the mise en scene and representation of the character as well as the music clearly represents the narrative I tried to portray which i found out through the feedback I received.

question 1B plan

Audience mind map

Representation mind map

narrative mind map

genre mind map

Rules for question 1B

- Must reference real media texts how did your understanding from your research impact on your decisions
- should talk about all macro elements as long as you always refer back to one that is being asked in the question
- Always use examples from your text to support your point
- Learn media theory

Micro & macro elements

Micro
- mise en scene
- sound
- editing
-camera angles (movement and position)

Macro
- Narrative
- Representation
- Genre
- Audience

Ten commandments for reflective writing

Section A
1. Focus on creative decisions informed by institutional knowledge
2. Focus on creative decisions informed by theoretical understanding
3. Evaluate the process- dont just describe it
4. Relate your media to real media at a micro level
5. Try to deconstruct yourself
6. Choose clearly relevant micro examples to relate to macro reflective themes
7. Avoid binary oppositions
8. Try to write about your broader media culture
9. Adopt a metadiscourse ( is a term that is used in to denote a discussion about a discussion
10. Quote, paraphrase, reference ( is restatement of a text or passages, using other words )

Section A exam tips

QUESTION 1A
-Flow and structure needed
- Terminology
- Keep refering a1 and a2
- time scale
- opening pargraph
- preliminary task
- main sequence
- advanced portfolio ( film poster & magazine review)

QUESTION 1B
-point out what you are talking about
- theory

Theoretical evaluation of production

Question 1A:
Requires candidiates to describe and evaluate your skill development over the course of their production work, from foundation portfolio to advance portfolio. The focus of this evaluation must be on skills development. The question will require you to adapt this to one or two specific production practises.
   Digital technology
  Creativity
  Research and planning
  post- production
  Using conventions from real meda texts
EXAMPLE QUESTION: describe how you developed research and planning skills for media production and evaluate how these skills contributed to creative decision making. Refer to a range of example in your answer to show how these skills devlpoed overtime.

Question 1B:
requires candidated to select one production and evaluate it in relation to a media concept .
  Genre
  Narrative
  Representation
  Audience
  Media language
EXAMPLE QUESTION: analyse media representation in one of your coursework productions.


MARK SCHEME:
-Explanation/analysis/arguement= 10MARKS
- Use of examples=  10MARKS
- Use of terminology= 5MARKS