Section A Question B

Theoretical Evaluation of Production

- You will chose ONE of your pieces of coursework in relation to a media concept.
- In the exam one of the following areas will be selected for you to write about:
-Genre
-Narrative
-Representation
-Audience
-Media Language

Macro
-Narrative
-Genre
-Audience
-Representation
-Media Language

Mirco
-Mise en Scene (costume, props, location etc)
-Lighting
-Camera angles, movement, position
-Editing
-Sound

Genre
Genres are categories or types of media text. Genres are recognisable through the repeated use of generic codes and conventions:
- Iconographies
- Narrative
- Representations
- Ideologies
Which of the above codes/conventions does your c/w use and how?

Genre and Audience
- Genre offers audiences a structure or framework
- Audiences gain enjoyment from 'spotting conventions' (repetition) and making comparisons with other films of the same genre
- If a text deviates from the conventions it can confuse us but at the same time we enjoy seeing the rules broken
- Audiences like the anticipation of waiting for predictable features
How did you use genre to offer your audience a framework? Do you think your target audience enjoyed spotting the conventions or seeing the rules broken?

Narrative Theories
You should aim to apply the narrative theorists which can be applied to your c/w
- Propp - 8 charater roles
* - Todorov - Equilibrium - Disequilibrium - New equilibirum * USE THIS
- Barthes - 5 codes (action, enigma, cultural, symbolic, Semic)
* - Levi-Strauss - Binary opposites = villain and hero * USE THIS

Narrative - Use A2 cw.
- A story must have verisimilitude (appear to be real) in order to engage us - how does your c/w verisimilitude/how have you created reality: Stereotype, conventions, codes (location, lighting, characters etc, within the diegesis (the world in which our characters live))

Representation
When analysing representations we should ask:
- WHO or WHAT is being represented?
- HOW is the representation created?
- WHO has created the representation?
- WHY is the representation created that way? What is the intention?
- WHAT is the effect of the representation?
examples: representation of gender, genre, stereotypical genre specific elements
- verisimilitude, mode of address, costume etc
- Intertextual refrences - comparing text to other media eg 'i'll be back' - terminator

Audience
- Who your audience is and how you targeted them
- Consider: age, gender, demographic profile, socio-economic group, existing/new, lifestyle, values, attitude
- Categories A,B,C1,C2,D,E
- Is your audience ,ass or niche
- What would the 3 reactions be to your c/w?
1. A preferred reading (your intended interpretation)
2. An oppositional reading (someone who didnt like it)
3. A negotiated reading (someone who isnt the target audience but might appreciate it for whatever reason) Stuart Hall

-Every media text is made with a view to pleasing an audience in some way - how did you try to pleaase your audience?
- Success is measured by the audience's response to a media text and those that do not attract and maintain an audience do not survive

Media Language
Media Language is all of the micro elements
You will need to write about:
- Denotations - what it acually is (a knife is a weapon)
- Connotations - what it creates (knife connotates danger violence)
- Anchorage
The way the film communicates with you
- Camera
- Editing
- Lighting
- Sound
- Mise en Scene
- Special effects: visual, sound and lighting