Narrative Quiz Pre-reading assessment

Synoptic - proving a point

What is The Male Gaze (what's it about?)

What are the traditional expectations of Men and Women roles in a film - what are men there do in a film compared to women?

What is genre and why do we have/use it?

How do we know what genre a media text is? What do we recognise?

What needs to be in the opening of a Thriller to keep the audience watching - usually in the form of a question?

Rocky vs Mr T - what roles do they play and why do you need them in a story?

Does the Media re-present reality anymore? What idea do we link to this?

If everything has been done, how do Media producers (film, games, music, etc) create new texts/ideas?

What are the 3 stages of a story?

What happened to the Vampire sub-genre of Horror between these films? What does this show about genre?

Time Essay Skills & Theory Revision

Starter: http://youtu.be/47gd_wfsN78?t=2h2m58s 

"The Media exists not to entertain or inform but to pacify and indoctrinate towards conformity"

 

What points can you find to support or challenge this?

Use the images below to generate ideas

 

http://www.online-stopwatch.com/full-screen-interval-timer/?c=wi5mcapdlt

 

The skill you have to develop:

Main Body: Go through each theory, in 5 minutes Pre-prepare your examples and points you wish to make.

How? Rewrite the question into something that you have an opinion on.

Point - a conventional idea about N/G/R/A/ML applied to YOUR work

Evidence/Example - from your production ie back up what you have said applies

Analysis - does it challenge or follow these theories and why/how?

Synthesis - Why does your production follow traditional ideas or not - answer the question?

Task: Practice

Lets try the skill in getting ideas out quickly and following structure

Look at the following provocative statement:

"Education exists to train into an acceptance of the way things are, to socialise and indoctrinate towards conformity in the interests of the ruling elite"

http://youtu.be/47gd_wfsN78?t=51m48s

Give me 1 point that challenges or reenforces this position, with an example from your own experiences of going through GCSE and A Level. Analyse your example to give a reason of how it does this?

You have 5 mins... 

Media Language Essay Plan

Genre Essay Plan

Framework How to select theories, make a judgment and present argument

Step 1
List 4 or 5 Theorists that you know or that your sorta understand

Step 2
Define their RULES/ideas, and extract their key terminology (Villain, Enigma, Male Gaze, Equilibrium)

Step 3
Decide which Music Video or Thriller- is more relevant to (follows or challenges)

Step 4
How relevant are these rules or ideas - now in 2014?
Tic (Yes), Cross (No), Frowny Face (Sorta, Meh!) 
Make a judgement - does it follow the rules overall or challenge (bend, play with or even break)

Step 5
Draw a conclusion - is your text a POSTMODERN TEXT (aahh!)

Enigma Codes

http://leighmediaas12.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/enigma-codes.html

Representation Exemplar what grade?

1B Essay- Representation

I am going to talk about theories of representation and how they can be applied to my production work which is a music video that we made for a pop rock band from London called FranKo. I am going to discuss the ways in which representation is used and challenged in our production and also apply some theory to it.    

I would like to start off discussing how my production can be applied to Walter Lippman’s theories about stereotypes. I would say that our production challenges the stereotypes of females in music videos as they seen to be slutty but in our production the only female character is dangerous and blood thirsty. This stereotypes of females are mainly found in R’n’B videos and they depict women as being objects for male gain. But this convention stereotype of women is being altered due to such bands as Paramore and you can this in there video ‘Decode‘ where Haley is being portrayed as strong and independent and we really wanted to follow onto this representation. I feel that we have done this as our female character kills the men with ease. The band are very stereotypically dressed for the genre they are playing as they are all dressed fashionable and have all been made up to create this image of the perfect pop rock band.  

Women have been represented in so many various ways from being objects to being there own independent ball busting femme fetals. Laura Mulvey professes that “all film is shot from the male gaze” I believe that my production challenges this concept as the female  character is in fact watching the band throughout the video and therefore it is shot from the female’s perspective. We where influenced by such media texts as Skrooms where the monstrous character is watching over her pray and therefore also shot from a feminine angel. John Berger said “men act women appear” I believe that these feminine representation are truly challenged in our production as our female character drives the narrative as without her it would just be a band walking through the woods and she adds an element of danger. I think that these theories of how women are represented in media are challenged so much in the current day that they have become out of date. This proven in our production. 

The femme fetal character type is one that can be found in our production in the form of our evil female character. Ann Kaplin is a feminist theorist who talks about the femme fetal role. The female character in our production uses her femininity to her advantage as she is seen to be a strong and powerful character through her violent actions this makes her a femme fetal. We took inspiration from other femme fetal characters such as Glenn Closes character in fatal attraction and Halle Berry in Catwoman. Who both use their femininity to conquer the other sex and though our character may not use her sexuality directly she does tackle them in a physical way. I think that this representation is becoming more common as women are becoming more powerful in society. 

Post modernism is represented in most media texts these days and you can certainly see this in our production as the locations skip from one area to the next which makes it disjointed as you can see this in other music videos such as Lady Gaga’s ‘Poker Face‘. The style of video also jumps around as one moment the band are playing in colour and the next they are in an old black and white film this is a hyper real occurrence and represents them jumping from one world to the next. This is to help the audience represent the music video as a horror video. 

To conclude I think that our production does only follow the conventions of representation but it also twists and bends them. I believe that we have challenged the representations of women and how they are perceived in the media but we are not the first to do this and this is now becoming the norm. But I do think that our production uses representation successfully.     

Where can it be improved?

AEE (10)

EX (10)

T (5)

Narrative Essay Plan

Introduction: Definition. Which product will you use to discuss and why, which are these theories of Narrative more relevant to? Why is this and why did they lend themselves more generally to a Film than a Music Video - a Modernist or a Postmodern text? TO WHAT EXTENT does your work conform to these rules or does it PLAY or even BREAK them?

Paragraph 1: Todorov
Equilibrium, Disruption, Resolution, analyse your production APPLYing this theory? What was the disruption, was it linear and does it bend or break or follow these 'rules'? Give examples from your Film or Music Video with where these sections are (as in what IS the disruption, how are they constructed on screen?). Does it follow the Linear pathway?
Conclusion - how relevant is this theory or set of rules about Narrative, what happens if you have broken them - particularly for a Thriller?

Paragraph 2: Binary Oppositions (Levi-Straus)
Hero vs Villain, Justice vs Crime etc. How essential is this to your story, have you complicated this with a 'duality' in the characters i.e. Fight club. Does your work play or complicate this simple rule of narrative and why? How did you construct this using examples from your Film or Music Video, costume, role in story etc.
Conclusion - how relevant is this theory or set of rules about Narrative, what happens if you have broken, distorted or complicated them?

Paragraph 3: Enigma Codes (Barthes) and/or 8 Types of Narratives (Domaille)
Obviously relates to your Thriller, however how does your construct the enigma code and what is it? Is this applicable to your Thriller to a large extent - does it in fact rely on it - does Barthes therefore still have a point/relevance?
Domaille - Is your Thriller or Music Video conforming to 1 of the 8 'types' of film narratives? To what extent is categorising Narrative into these structures/boxes a relevant approach to analysing your film - give examples of how your work does this (MES etc)

Paragraph 4: Propp (Archetypes)
How applicable are these character types from Russian Fairytales? Why is that? To what extent is this useful and why - are your characetrs more 'realistic' or complicated? Are you playing with these roles to engage the audience, playing with them (Shrek/Wreck It Ralph) or using them to set out clear understanding of who they are - dumbing down to an audience (Harry Potter)

Paragraph 5: Postmodernism
Grand Narratives - what themes or message come through this that question our belief in Ideologies - justice, faith, family, relationships, gender roles, love etc. that we hold (held) as TRUE? Positive/Clear Resolution? Does the film or Music Video have a clear or open ended resolution. Is it a positive, hopeful story or progress or a cynical and Dystopic ending?

Conclusion
How have you made use of the 'rules' of Narrative in your text? TO WHAT EXTENT? How far would you assess your piece as being a Modern or Postmnodern text? Why/what purpose?

Representation Essay Plan assessment match em up

Media Language - Semiotics

Starter:
Denotation & Connotation
Pictionary - draw 'Family', 'Happiness', 'Success', 'Beauty', 'Security', 'Desire'


Now draw 'Forgiveness', 'Disappointment', 'Reality', 'Contentment'



How easy is it for us to communicate - what can you deduce about the ones we can recognise and their promenance as messages or values



Starter: What car would you choose to define you?

http://www.guzer.com/games/createaride.php 
<br />
Semiotics Lecture - make notes:


What are the Myths - 'Normalised' Ideologies or Hegemony

Media language1 from WhiteBoiThsallyLover