Previous Exam Questions Q1b

Brain Gym to beat the Paper Turning Fear: "Fear does not exist in this Dojo...NO SENSAI

No Fear

G325 June 2010 GENRE 19/25

1b) 

Genre is often used as a way of distinguishing one style from another; it categorises 

works so that the audience can more easily choose what they want to experience. For 

my music video, the genre of our music was a hybrid of electropop/rock/dance, which 

come mostly from the original song and from our personal tastes. Since our genre is 

modern and not common, we drew conventions from artists that had similar styles to 

ours. The conventions we found for music video for our genre are;  editing often cuts 

to the beat; for female artists – costumes are bold, they wear high heels, ands the 

performances are strong and full of attitude. Examples of artists’ videos that do this 

are Beyonce (through her powerful dance routines and sexy costumes) and Lady 

GaGa (who wears extreme hair, costume and makeup). 

My music video consisted of my group members (4 girls) giving powerful 

performances with sections of dance routine. We stuck to these conventions because 

we wanted the audience to recognise it as belonging to a genre and looking back at it 

now I think we succeeded. The genre has postmodern influences as does our video. It 

starts with a short narrative to no music, where a girl looks at a picture in a locket of 

her and a guy, slams it shut and looks in a mirror – which transports her into 

‘subconscious mind’. We filmed the bulk of our video in an all-white studio and with 

our powerful costumes that intertextually referenced  the deadly sins and Marie 

Antoinette the audience can quite clearly see that it is not reality. 

You can see that our video promotes strong women by their feisty performance and 

this is emphasised by the use of a male, white headless, mannequin with a ‘perfect’ 

torso. In the video the sins are corrupting the girl (but they are all just facets of her 

personality) and they dominate the mannequin. This is in contrast with Laura 

Mulvey’s theory of the ‘Male Gaze’ whereby media is predominantly made with a 

male or masculine audience in mind. Our target audience is 14-25 year old women, 

and this is obvious because the audience immediately identify with the main girl since 

she is the focus of the narrative and on the mannequin’s torso is a kiss mark, showing 

the women ‘marking their territory’ on him. If we were targeting men we would’ve 

used a real man, but by our production decisions the target audience and genre is 

clear. 

We followed the convention of cutting shots to the beat, however we challenged the 

convention of keeping lines of the song in one shot. We cut midway through words 

and phrases in order to quicken the pace, which is often fast for this genre. An aspect 

of the genre which we developed is comedy. In some of the music videos artists take 

themselves very seriously, however we combined the sexy performances with the 

comic editing and cut aways to five the characters a ‘human feel’ in the make believe

world. For example we used what was originally going to be an outtake, where one 

girl shakes her bum from side to side, and we matched it to the beat, giving it a comic 

edge. 

You can apply Lyotard’s theory of mete-narratives to our video since it blurs the lines 

between reality and fantasy using the key signifier of a mirror in the opening 

narrative. 

I think the my music video successfully conveys its genre while still maintaining 

enigma. The Reception Theory can be applied, since from feedback, many people had 

different interpretations, which is what this genre is all about. Looking at it 

objectively I would say that it is a fun, interesting video that invites playability and 

successfully promotes the song, which is the aim of a music video. 

EAA 7 

EG 8 

T 4 

(19) 

Total for Section A 39/50 

Jan 2011 NARRATIVE exemplars & marks essay 1 & 2

June 2011 AUDIENCE borderline 4

1(b) Analyse one of your coursework productions in relation to the concept of 

audience. 

The concept of audience is fundamental to the making of a media text. A producer 

must take into account the age, social status and gender and interests of a target 

consumer in order to adjust the text to make it as appealing to them as possible. For 

my A2 coursework I created a horror called ‘The sleepover’. Classification of age 

appropriateness is important in audience identification. Films are screened by an 

external board and given a minimum age of viewers. Most horror films are rated 18, 

due to extreme gore, violence, sex and disturbance – not to mention emotional trauma 

which is why I chose to rate my film as 18 as my film was a very conventional slasher 

film. 

The Hypodermic Needle effect is the first audience theory. It originated in the 1920s 

when mass media first began to be popular. This suggests that a producer has an 

intended meaning which is definitely understood by the audience. In this theory the 

audience are completely passive. If this was applied to my text the audience would 

view the killing scenes and sex scenes and instantly replicate the actions. This of 

course is unrealistic and this theory is often argued to be very simplistic and outdate, 

considering how much the media has developed this century. 

The uses and gratifications audience theory suggests than an audience consume 

particular texts in order to receive something from them. Bulmer and Katz identified 

four uses and gratifications as diversion (entertainment and escape from reality), 

surveillance (information), personal identity (seeing yourself reflected in the text and 

learning new values and personal relationships (seeking emotional interaction and 

substituting media relationships for your own). In my coursework, a consumer may 

use diversion  - the horror trailer is escapist – a route away from reality and they 

would be entertained by the mystery and fear of my film. Diversion would also 

include catharsis that my trailer would enable, which is using the media as an outlet of 

emotion – they would experience horror in the safety of cinema. They would also 

experience the ‘personal identity’ stage in seeing themselves in, or, admiring, the 

good characters – particularly the ‘final girl’ character and her charming boyfriend, 

depending on gender of audience member. They would also have the personal 

relationships because they could feel emotion of the fear and sadness of the victims 

whilst substituting their emotional relationship with the friendships in my trailer or the 

main characters’ romantic relationship with her boyfriend. My audience would not 

use the surveillance stage as horror films are not intended to be instructional. 

The most modern and developed theory of audience is reception theory. This model 

based on Stuart Hall’s encoding model, suggests that a producer will encode a text 

and the audience will decode it. Their reading is affected by many contextual and 

personal factors such as age, social status, gender, current mood and personal 

experiences.  I encoded my horror trailer as well as I could using beautiful, edgy, 

feminine characters which appeal to the female consumers. I used isolated settings 

which suggest to the audience that escape isn’t possible (deserted house, woods) thus 

highlighting the experience of fear and panic that one hopes for when watching a 

horror film. I used acoustic codes in the form of a deep male voice over and jumpy, 

low orchestral score to hope that my audience will feel tension and suspense. My 

killer was masked and always appeared silent and in the shadows, connoting evil and 

dehumanising him hopefully creating a response of fear from the audience. 

My main target audience were males and females aged 18-30. I used attractive actors 

to appeal to the audience who would admire / desire them. The ‘cool’ stylish clothing 

adds to this. I used the male gaze theory by Laura Mulvey, showing a victim’s 

cleavage and the ‘final girl’ theory (hopefully creating a stronger feminist image to 

other women) to attract both genders. I used audience research in the form of 

questionnaires to find out my audiences preferences and dislikes in order to make my 

trailer meet their interests as fully as possible. I also asked for audience feedback on 

my first drafts which allowed me to make improvements based on the opinions of 20 

18-30 year olds. The told me to exaggerate gore and violence more and use more 

threatening music which I then incorporated using iMovie so that me audience was 

tempted to watch my piece. 

I aimed my piece at a low social status as my trailer was a version of British teenagers 

experiencing the American slasher experience. I used strong language, popular music 

for soundtrack and fashionable clothing to hopefully attract this group. 

This is a level 3 / level 4 borderline response 

Level 4 qualities –coherence, range of useful examples, ability to answer the 

question in sustained manner, relating of theory to practice. The understanding 

of Hall’s encoding / decoding model in relation to own work. The discussion of 

‘effects’ early on is clear and relevant. 

Level 3 qualities – the application of audience theories (insufficiently developed 

for level 4 – eg the ‘use of’ Mulvey, in the same paragraph as the use of 

questionnaires for feedback).     

Representation Theory

Representation overview & structure

Definition: Re – presentation

The presentation of a form of reality in a media text.
—Representation is always a re-presentation, in which elements of reality are selected, organized and narrated.
—By nature, media ‘mediates’ reality – it selects it and shows us only what the producer wants.

Media producers have no choice but to be selective in their choice of material, however naturalistic their approach
so….
texts will always represent individuals, groups and issues, whatever the intentions of the producer.

What is being visually represented in a music video?
-A form of hyper-reality?
-The lyrics of the song?
-The music?
-The artist?
-A theme within the narrative?
-A movement – feminism?

Stereotypes - why have they proved popular/identify with:
—With audiences?
—With institutions (marketing and creative)?

How could stereotypical representations be seen as ideological:
Positive or Negative
Challenging or Re-enforcing Dominant Ideas about a group?

David Gauntlett - constructing identity : Audiences and representation, Gauntlett says that we reconfirm or challenge our identity through watching media texts.

—We use texts as toolbox to check own identity

Gauntlett described the Social construction of identity: how can you work out who you are through what you see in a media text? Your identity is not fixed: you will be shaped by what you watch.
--Identity as project – audience chooses the tools
-Conflicting media messages about identity
So.. When we watch a text we compare ourselves to the stereotypes presented within it.
Look at the use of stereotypes in your music video. How far could you say your music video encourages audiences to reconfirm or challenge who they are when watching your video?

Laura Mulvey - the male gaze
One theory in media studies is the idea of the ‘male gaze’. This explores the idea that the camera ‘sees’ images through male eyes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViwtNLUqkMY
“The message though was always the same: buy the product, get the girl; or buy the product to get to be like the girl so you can get your man” in other words, “‘Buy’ the image, ‘get’ the woman”
—What could this mean?
—Why might it be the case?
—How might this be evident in your music video?

Judith Butler - gender performance
—Butler argues that gender is a performance.
—It is what you do at particular times, rather than about who you are.
Apply this to your work….
Do the male characters behave typically masculine?
Do the female characters behave typically feminine?

Feminism / Post feminism
—Feminism = a movement (c. 1960s) promoting the rights of women to be equal to men and arguing that women should no longer dress and behave as men wish them to.

—Post-feminism = movement arguing that women have now achieved equality and should be free to dress and behave as they wish without doing so for the benefit of men. Use of Irony and reclaiming sexuality - not exploitation
Example: Girls Aloud.
Post-feminist icons?
Objects of male gaze?
Exploited or powerful?
Role models for women?

Postmodernism: Hyper-Reality - Baudrillard
—Representation of reality or simulacra



Stuart Hall - encoding and decoding texts
—Particular representations become established through repetition in the media e.g. villain characters / antagonists
-they develop a ‘common sense’ status through their ‘per formative nature’
-Hall focuses on issues of race and culture but his theory can be applied to any representation

How to construct your answer:

Introduction: Definition. Which product will you use to discuss? What is being represented within your music video? A form of reality? The lyrics of the song? The music? The artist? A theme within the narrative? A movement – feminism?

Paragraph 1: Stereotypes
What stereotypes have you represented? How have you done this (tie in with media language) What are the risks/benefits for audiences/institutions? Are there any stereotypes that are under represented/ misrepresented?
Gauntlett’s theory of reconfirming or challenging our identity through watching media texts. Using texts as toolbox. How does this relate your own work?

Paragraph 2: Ideology
How does your coursework re-enforce or challenge stereotypes, are they hegemonic representations? 

Paragraph 3: Stuart Hall - Preferred Readings and encoding/decoding texts
How might different audience ‘readings’ of texts affect how the representation of the text is formed. Stuart Hall’s theory of representations becoming established through ‘repetition’ and a ‘common sense status’ through the ‘performative nature’ of texts (we know what a car chase feels like because we have seen in within a media text).

Paragraph 4: Gender representation
Judith Butler Gender as a performance – masculine or feminine?
Laura Mulvey The Male Gaze

Post Feminist

Paragraph 5: Postmodernism
Baudrillard Hyper-reality & simulacra, how can we apply this to your music videos, how are they focusing on media constructions of representations, to what extent have you used intertextuality to represent reality?

Conclusion
How have you made use of the issue of representation in your text? What are the advantages of representation within a media text for audiences? What limitations are there?

Audience

London Riots - moral panic & scapegoats